Darrell Hair, recently re-instated as an ICC Umpire, will carry on where he left off with a return to Test Match umpiring in England. The Australian, who has been out of the game for nearly two years following the infamous Oval Test against Pakistan in 2006, will stand for the 2nd Test against New Zealand at Old Trafford next month.
Hair’s last appearance in Test Cricket ended in controversy after he accused Pakistan of ball tampering, for which they faced a 5 run penalty (& more pertinently, the shame of being accused of cheating.) Pakistan responded with understandable fury, though their refusal to play brought the Test Match to a premature end and was, frankly, pathetic. Hair was accused of being a racist, removed from the ICC panel and he consequently started legal action against cricket’s governing body for racial discrimination. Whilst Pie Chucker loves to see an Aussie suffer, we were outraged that Hair copped all the blame when Pakistan had behaved so disrespectfully towards the fans.
Geoffrey Boycott has welcomed Hair’s return but suggests that the Umpire needs to work on his rapport with players. He wrote in the Sun:
“I hope he will come back as a better umpire and a better communicator. I have no dislike of the man, nor do I want to see him hounded out of the game.”
4 responses so far ↓
1 shandos // May 9, 2008 at 7:05 pm
Boycs is wrong. If we are struggling then accusing the opposition of ball tampering and communicating this in a way that results in the dominating opposition forfeiting the Test seems like bloody good umpiring and communication to me. Welcome back Darrell.
2 admin // May 9, 2008 at 9:05 pm
Boycs has been on the bog cleaner.
3 Parky // May 10, 2008 at 8:49 am
Why the big fuss? Boycott is always talking cr@p.
4 Ad // May 11, 2008 at 11:13 pm
Boycott is a national treasure.
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