SYDNEY, Aug 29: Mired in controversy, the beleaguered Australian cricket umpire Darrell Hair is believed to have taken shelter in a country hideaway in northern England to avoid media gaze.

Hair was in the eye of a storm when he held Pakistan guilty of ball tampering while officiating the Oval Test against England. Later the cricketing world was shocked when ICC revealed that Hair demanded half a million dollar payout to retire from international cricket.

According to a leading newspaper Down Under, The Australian, media pressure has since made Hair a target around the clock. The paper claims that Hair has left his house in Lincoln to stay at a private residence in northern England after being harassed by journalists during the past week.

According to reports, Hair even went so far as to call local police and have them investigate whether the media harassment was a breach of the law.

—Agencies