Hair to sue ICC and Pakistan CB

KevIRL

Umpire Darrell Hair is suing world cricket's governing body and the Pakistan Cricket Board for racial discrimination, the BBC understands.
Hair feels he was made a scapegoat when he was barred from officiating Test matches after the forfeited Oval Test between England and Pakistan in August.

Billy Doctrove, his fellow umpire in the game when Pakistan were accused of ball-tampering, is now back in action.

Wednesday saw Hair standing in a match between Kenya and Scotland in Nairobi.

His contract as an elite umpire runs until March 2008 but he will not be allowed to stand in games involving Test nations.

Doctrove, from Dominica, took several months off before returning to action during Pakistan's recent Test series in South Africa.

Hair believes the PCB "unlawfully induced" the International Cricket Council to engage in discriminatory acts when it lobbied for his ban before a November meeting.

ICC bosses have admitted that, prior to the meeting off all Test-playing nations, they had hoped Hair could continue his role on the elite panel of umpires.

But afterwards, ICC president Percy Sonn said: "It was clear from discussions that the ICC board had lost confidence in Mr Hair."

Sonn also stated that Doctrove's status was not discussed at the meeting.

On 20 August, Hair and Doctrove awarded England a five-run penalty because they believed the ball had been interfered with.

The Pakistan team refused to resume play after the tea interval in protest against the decision, leading to the first fofeiture in 129 years of Test cricket.

ICC adjudicator Ranjan Madugalle later cleared Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq of ball-tampering charges.

Hair offered his resignation in exchange for $500,000 (£254,500) in the wake of the match.

DMC

Regardless of Hair's unusual tactics, there are a lot of unanswered questions which still need to be answered about the whole sorry event.