KARACHI, Dec 24: The International Cricket Council (ICC) has nominated umpire Darrell Hair for final two Tests of the forthcoming Pakistan-India series despite the Australian’s indifferent performance in the recent series against England.

Hair was embroiled in controversy when he erroneously referred a run-out appeal against Inzamamul Haq during last month’s second Test in Faisalabad.

Inzamam was given out by local umpire Nadeem Ghauri after the Pakistan captain had failed to reach the crease while taking an evasive action when England fast bowler Steve Harmison threw the ball on his follow through.

According the laws of cricket, the field umpires (Hair and Simon Taufel) should have declared Inzamam not out instead of referring the matter to the TV umpire who clearly lacked a common cricketing sense at that point of time.

Hair also upset the Pakistanis when he warned both opener Salman Butt and leg-spinner Danish Kaneria for running on the pitch. The Australian official earned notoriety when he called Sri Lankan off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan for throwing during the Melbourne Test in 1995-96.

South African Rudi Koertzen is scheduled to stand in the first two Tests. His partner from the ICC elite panel in the first Test at Lahore will be Australia’s Daryl Harper.

Hair and Koertzen will take charge of the second Test in Faisalabad while Hair then teams up with fellow Australian Taufel for the third and final Test in Karachi.

Taufel, currently the highest rated umpire, is due to supervise in all five One-day Internationals between the great Asian rivals with field umpires to be nominated by the Pakistan Cricket Board.

Ranjan Madugalle, the former Sri Lanka captain and the ICC’s chief referee, will oversee the Test series while ex-England opening batsman Chris Broad is the ICC match referee for the ODI series.