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| September 23, 2006 | Saturday | Sha'aban 29, 1427 |
ICC rejects Pakistan demand to omit Hair
KARACHI, Sept 22: Pakistan's demand that Australian umpire Darrell Hair should not be appointed at next month's Champions Trophy has been rejected by the International Cricket Council (ICC).
“The ICC have said that responsibility of appointing umpires was given to it by the executive board and no country should make such demands on it,” a Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) official told Reuters on Friday.
In the next few days, the ICC is due to announce the umpires for the Champions Trophy being held from October 7 in India.
Following the ball-tampering row with Hair in the Oval test against England last month, the Pakistan board had written to the ICC insisting he should not be posted in the tournament due to his controversial nature.
The Pakistan team refused to play on in the fourth test after Hair and fellow umpire Billy Doctrove changed the ball and penalised them five runs for alleged ball-tampering.
The umpires awarded the test to England and the ICC later charged captain Inzamam-u-Haq with several violations of its Code of Conduct and he is due to attend a two-day hearing in London from September 27.
“The letter had been sent to the ICC President, Percy Sonn, in which we had expressed our reservations if Hair was appointed,” said the official, who declined to be named.
The official added that in the reply, the ICC said it could not accept member countries dictating the appointment of umpires and Hair, being on the elite panel, would be considered.
The official, however, said that indications were that the ICC was not on a confrontation path and would adopt the policy of keeping Hair out of Pakistan's matches in the tournament.
“The signals we have got is they will hold back the announcement for the semi-finals and final and if we qualify, decide later. They will only announce umpires for the league matches now,” he added.
The PCB official insisted that Pakistan would, however, not accept Hair in any of their matches at any cost.—Reuters
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