By IANS
Dubai : The International Cricket Council (ICC) Tuesday decided to reinstate controversial umpire Darrell Hair to the ICC elite panel of umpires.
“Darrell Hair will be in an eminent and elite panel of umpires and will be appointed for official ICC matches. This will be put into immediate effect,” ICC president-elect David Morgan said at a press conference here Tuesday at the conclusion of the two-day ICC board meeting.
“Hair will be posted for Tests as well as One-Day Internationals under the new system of appointing umpires for the entire series.”
Asked if the member countries might raise objections to his appointment, Morgan said: “Hair is a good and competent umpire. He has performed various other jobs (during the time he was out of the panel) for David Richardson in the ICC cricket committee.”
ICC sacked Hair succumbing to the pressure from Pakistan after the Oval fiasco in 2006.
Hair and West Indian umpire Billy Doctrove had leveled allegation of ball tampering against Pakistan in the fourth Test against England following which skipper Inzamam-ul- Haq protested and refused to take the field.
The match was deemed forfeited by Pakistan and England were declared winner. It was also Test cricket’s first forfeiture in its 120-year old history, which raised a storm in the cricketing world.
The ICC held an inquiry and in November that year barred Hair from international games for the rest of his contract, which expired this month.
After ICC removed Hair from the elite panel, the Australian sued the world body on charges of racial discrimination but later backed out.
Hair was not officiating in any international matches since then and ICC allowed him to stand only in matches involving its associate members.