Principled Umpire Scarcely Deserves Censure

The Age

Tuesday August 22, 2006

Phil Wilkins

Darrell Hair is a fair official with the game's best interests at heart, Phil Wilkins writes

IF THERE is one man on the International Cricket Council's umpiring panel brave enough to put his head in the furnace and remain unflinching in the fire, it is Darrell Hair.

His action in awarding the fourth Test to England at the Oval in London is unprecedented in Test cricket and, predictably, for his courage he is facing the firing squad.

Hair and his West Indian umpiring partner, Billy Doctrove, were given the opportunity to revoke their decision to award the Test and a 3-0 series win to England. They refused.

Hair is a man of the strictest principle, an official absolutely true to the game, an umpire of the fairest, most unswerving practices.

He has always been a man of the strongest fibre and for that he is being castigated ferociously.

Formerly a pace bowler in Sydney grade cricket, not known to bow down, Hair has carried that playing philosophy into the most torrid of arenas as an umpire.

At times, the pitch of a Test cricket ground must seem the loneliest place on the planet. Undoubtedly, as the senior man, Hair will take the cyclonic force of the abuse, but Doctrove is one of the ICC's best umpires over the past two years and is his own man. He deserves his own commendation.

The enormous furore evokes memories of Hair's standing at the heart of the MCG in the Boxing Day Test of 1995, when he no-balled Sri Lanka's Muthiah Muralidaran seven times in three overs for "throwing" while New Zealand umpire Steve Dunne remained mute.

Hair's no-balling of the spin bowler echoed around world cricket as few affairs have done. It was an experience that scarred Hair personally and threatened his umpiring career. For a year or so, his high standards slipped.

But in more recent times, he and fellow Australian umpires Simon Taufel and Daryl Harper have put down a suspicion often amounting to prejudice against their rare numbers and established themselves among the best in the game.

But the Indian subcontinental bloc of Sri Lanka, India and Pakistan has never forgiven Hair, just as it has never forgiven another Australian, Ross Emerson, who faced Sri Lanka's formidable captain, Arjuna Ranatunga, after he had had the temerity to no-ball Muralidaran in a one-day international in Adelaide. Ranatunga railed and raged at Emerson, but the umpire won the battle and then lost the war.

Emerson, formerly an undercover policeman in Sydney, never received the genuine backing of officialdom, whatever Australian claims there may be to the contrary, and eventually he retired to lead a saner, less vindictive life in Perth.

Subsequently, officialdom has made the grand concession and found fault with Muralidaran's "doosra" delivery. Yet the Sri Lankan continues to sail along taking his bundles of Test wickets with his arm bending at the elbow and flopping about as if it were a jellied eel.

For years, an army of umpires has stared in disbelief and then, unlike Hair and Emerson, each one of them has considered his international future in the game and consigned Muralidaran's action to the "too hard basket", in effect, the waste bin of the ICC.

For critics to lambast umpire Hair because he did not see the ball actually being damaged in the latest furore is to argue that a crime cannot be proved in court if there are no witnesses.

But the acid of subcontinental criticism is all-corrosive and must eventually eat away the strongest man's resistance. Hair should prepare himself for retirement and return to his beloved pacers.

Worst of all, this affair will only lead further down the path to the extinction of that disappearing breed, the fearless umpire.

DARRELL HAIR: A CONTROVERSIAL CAREER

Born September 30, 1952, Mudgee NSW

Player Fast bowler in Sydney grade cricket

1988 Debut as first-class umpire

1992 Debut as Test umpire, Australia v India, Adelaide

1993 Contentiously rules Craig McDermott caught off his glove in Adelaide, giving West Indies victory by one run - the closest winning margin in Test history.

1995 Calls Sri Lankan spinner Muthiah Muralidaran seven times from bowler's end for throwing in Test at MCG. Subsequently gets death threats.1998 Describes Murali's action as "diabolical" in autobiography

Sri Lankan board asks ICC to suspend Hair for bringing game into disrepute

Stands down from England-Australia-Sri Lanka tri-series

Threatens to sue Sri Lankan board president for "smear campaign"

1999 Slanging match with Indian coach Kapil Dev over decisions

2002 Omitted from first ICC elite umpires panel

2003 Joins expanded ICC elite umpires panel

Decisions upset South Africans in series in Pakistan

2004 Tells ICC he does not want to umpire in Zimbabwe

2005 Passes Murali's action in Super Series ODI in Melbourne

Gives Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq run out when he jumped to avoid return throw.

Reports Pakistan's Shahid Afridi for scuffing up pitch with spikes during break in play.

2006 Rules Pakistan players tampered with ball in fourth Test at the Oval. Imposes five-run penalty, then rules Pakistan has forfeited match, the first such ruling in Test history.

© 2006 The Age

Back to News Index | Back to Home