LONDON, March 19: Darrell Hair is unlikely to officiate at matches involving Pakistan despite being restored as a Test and One-Day International umpire, an International Cricket Council (ICC) official said on Wednesday.

The ICC announced on Tuesday that Hair had been restored to their elite panel but general manager Dave Richardson said the world governing body would act to prevent Hair from standing in matches involving Pakistan.

“We would have to take a sensible approach,” Richardson told the BBC on Wednesday. “We will probably keep him away from Pakistan matches where we can.”

Australian Hair, 55, was sacked from the ICC’s elite panel of umpires in November 2006 for his role at the Oval in August that year when Pakistan became the first team to forfeit a Test.

Pakistan refused to return to the field in protest at being penalised for alleged ball-tampering and England being awarded five extra runs.

Shaharyar M. Khan, who headed the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) at the time of The Oval Test, said the ICC could face problems over Hair in the Champions Trophy in Pakistan in September.

“I just hope the ICC realises the potentially explosive situation it could create by posting Hair for any matches involving Pakistan,” he said in Karachi.

Pakistani officials said they had made their views known to the ICC.

“The PCB’s views and opinions and position on Hair have been made clear in the ICC meeting,” PCB chairman Nasim Ashraf said.

Shafqat Naghmi, the board’s chief operating officer, added: “I don’t think he will ever be officiating in matches in which Pakistan is a party.”

Richardson hinted, however, that Hair would not be barred from officiating in all matches involving Asian teams.

“It’s pointless having an umpire on the elite panel who is excluded from umpiring certain teams,” he said.

“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’s justified to bring him back and that he was unjustly kept on the sidelines in the first place.”

ICC president-elect David Morgan told reporters on Tuesday the council’s decision to reinstate Hair, taken at a board meeting in Dubai, had been unanimous.

“Darrell Hair is a good, competent umpire and his position will be reviewed after March 31, 2009 as is the case with other umpires at the end of their contracts. It was a unanimous decision [to reinstate him].”

The move came after Hair underwent a rehabilitation programme devised by the ICC and umpired less important fixtures.—Reuters