Hair to sue cricket authorities

[wasi siddiqui]

Umpire Darrell Hair is taking legal action against world cricket's governing body and the Pakistan Cricket Board for racial discrimination.
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.

Hair stood in a match between Kenya and Scotland in Nairobi on Wednesday.

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.

It is crass for him to say a black West Indian was let off [whereas] he was a white man and therefore he was charged

PCB chairman Dr Nasim Ashraf

PCB chairman Dr Nasim Ashraf said he was "simply outraged" when his lawyer passed on Hair's written claims.

"This is adding insult to injury. Race has nothing to do with this," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"Mr Hair was removed from the elite panel of umpires by the full ICC board, which has many countries, because of his poor judgement.

"This is the most preposterous thing I have heard. This is another manifestation of Mr Hair's mental status."

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.

Ashraf added: "It is crass for him to say a black West Indian was let off [whereas] he was a white man and therefore he was charged.

"Mr Hair was the senior umpire and he literally took over that Oval cricket match. I was present there.

"There was only one man that evening that did not want cricket to be played. [It was] a black spot on the history of cricket thanks to Mr Hair."

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.

[Kool Guy]