May 22, 2008	Thursday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 16, 1429

MANCHESTER (England), May 21: Controversial Australian umpire Darrell Hair will stand in his first cricket Test for nearly two years at Old Trafford on Friday confident that he can get key decisions right.

He was regarded as one of the world’s best before being banned in aftermath of forfeited Test at the Oval in August 2006, when Hair accused Pakistan of ball-tampering.

He returns for second Test between England and New Zealand after undertaking a rehabilitation programme and agreeing to drop claim of racial discrimination against International Cricket Council.

“I think decision-making ability is still there, only thing that could change that is lack of confidence as I haven’t been out there,” Hair said.

“Provided I get right processes and triggers into place in my technique on a ball-by-ball basis, I’m confident I’ll be able to make majority of correct decisions.

If that turns out to be otherwise, then I’d probably need to look at if I am still capable of umpiring at international level, but at the moment I feel confident in my abilities and fact that I can do it.”

Hair, who has umpired 76 Tests and 135 ODIs, said: “Confidence is extremely important [for an umpire] as when you have confidence you don’t second guess yourself. When your confidence is down and you’ve made a few errors that you’re aware of and realise you shouldn’t have made, that really does knock your confidence around and it goes around.

“The old adage of ‘forget about it and think about next ball’...it’s very difficult. Anyone who says they can do that all the time is probably not being very truthful.”

On what he thought changed during his spell away from game at highest level, Hair added: “If it’s at all possible, intensity of scrutiny on umpiring decisions and lack of understanding I suppose as to how difficult the job is.

“That’s not meant to be criticism. Media have their own job to do and they have to report as it is and if mistakes are made, that’s fine.

“But I think people need to take into account more difficulty of particular matches. Some matches are more difficult than others and there’s no doubt about that.”—Agencies