Hair shaved by ICC from Elite Panel

MUMBAI, Nov. 3, 2006 (AFP) - Australian umpire Darrell Hair, who has been sacked from the International Cricket Council's elite panel according to an unnamed ICC source, is no stranger to controversy.

Hair is a love-hate figure within the cricket world. And the beginning of the end of his elite career came as he took centre stage in the furore over Pakistan's forfeited Test match against England at London's Oval in August.

As he came under a hail of criticism in Pakistan, he followed that up by delivering a bouncer to the ICC by offering his resignation in return for a payment of 500,000 dollars.

To his supporters the 54-year-old Australian, whose appearance at The Oval threatens to be his 76th and last Test, is one of the last top-flight umpires confident enough to back his own judgment and uphold the game's laws in full, whatever the cost. To his critics, he is a spotlight-seeking pedant.

Both sides would probably have been unshaken in their views when Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq was found guilty of bringing cricket into disrepute, for leading his side off the pitch, but not guilty of ball-tampering, which Hair had signalled with the award of five penalty runs - a decision which sparked Pakistan's protest.

ICC chief match referee Ranjan Madugalle, who presided over the hearing, subsequently told reporters that he would want "concrete evidence" before accusing anyone of ball-tampering. The inference was that Hair hadn't produced any, even though cricket's rulebook doesn't set a standard of proof.

This was not the first time Hair found himself caught up in controversy. In 1995/96 he was centre stage at the Melbourne Cricket Ground where he called Sri Lanka off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan, whose career has been dogged by questions over the legitimacy of his action, for throwing.

Hair then further enraged Sri Lanka supporters, and many cricket fans within the Indian sub-continent especially, by branding Muralitharan's action "diabolical" in his autobiography. In 1994 Peter Kirsten, the South Africa opening batsman, was fined 65 percent of his match fee for what Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, the sport's bible, called an "animated conversation" with Hair over lbw decisions.

Even before the drama at the Oval, Britain's Independent on Sunday newspaper reported that Pakistan had made an official complaint about Hair after England's third Test victory at Headingly.

Pakistan had also objected to him standing in the series-finale with the tourists saying they found his manner towards them "dismissive" and "rude". When the inaugural elite panel was announced in 2002, the experienced Hair, who umpired his first Test in 1992, was left off the list, although he did join it a year later.

That led him to move to England to cut down the time he spent travelling around the world.

Hair made the news again last November when he upset Pakistan by ruling that Inzamam had been run out by a throw from England fast bowler Stephen Harmison back to the wicket-keeper during the Faisalabad Test, even though the batsman appeared to be taking evasive action.

Hair first stood in first-class cricket in 1988-89, having previously been a fast bowler for North Sydney and Mosman in the Sydney grade club competition.