March 21, 2008	Friday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 12, 1429

SYDNEY, March 20: Controversial Australian umpire Darrell Hair said on Thursday he will focus on improved communication with players after his enforced spell away from top-level cricket.

Hair was recalled to the elite panel of umpires on Tuesday after the International Cricket Council (ICC) decided to reinstate him at a board meeting held in Dubai.

Hair was dumped from the panel following an abandoned match between England and Pakistan at The Oval in 2006, which ended with the tourists conceding the first Test forfeit in the game’s history.

His reinstatement after a “rehabilitation” course has been heavily criticised by Pakistan.

“It caused me a lot of stress, I suppose it caused a lot of people some stress along the way,” Hair told radio here on Thursday.

“The laws now have been changed to take those decisions out of the hands of the umpires and I fully support the way that that’s going to happen in future. So, it’s time to move on.

“Every day in life you like to pick up something and move forward, so I won’t say my whole attitude to umpiring has changed but I think I have picked up a few things that are going to be very helpful to me in the future.

“Probably just... having a broader understanding of what everybody else is thinking and the old communication issue of making sure that what you say and what you want is understood by the other people.

“I’ve always been a little bit ... stand-offish in that I’ve always preferred to let them play the game themselves and only get involved when things go overboard, but maybe there’s a case to be made for a little bit more work in that area.”

Hair, 55, said he was available to umpire in Pakistan.

“Part of my contract is that I’m available now to umpire Test matches and One-day Internationals,” he said.

“Now whether that (umpiring in Pakistan) is going to happen I think you’ll need to ask the people who make the appointments.”

ICC general manager Dave Richardson said the sport’s world governing body would be sensitive to the issue of the Pakistan Cricket Board’s frosty relationship with Hair.

“We would have to take a sensible approach,” Richardson told BBC on Wednesday.

“We will probably keep him away from Pakistan matches where we can. It’s pointless having an umpire on the elite panel who is excluded from umpiring certain teams. There are always going to be stages in an umpire’s career when he is not flavour of the month, but he will come up against an Asian team at some stage.

“Darrell Hair over time seems to polarise opinion, but a lot of his supporters will feel it is justified to bring him back and that he was unjustly kept on the sidelines.”

Former Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq said he was “shocked and disgusted” by Hair’s reinstatement. Hair said he was not concerned by others’ views of him.

“I’ve got no comment on anyone else’s reaction really. I’m just going to look after my own patch and go out there and umpire the matches that I’m appointed to and do that to the best of my ability which is what I’ve always done.”—Agencies