ICC 'gave in' to Asian bloc - Hair lawyer

CRICKET: Darrell Hair, the Australian umpire, was prevented from umpiring in top-level international cricket so as to appease non-white cricketing countries, it was claimed in the Central London Employment Tribunal here Monday.

Hair is suing the International Cricket Council (ICC) for racial discrimination. Together with fellow umpire Billy Doctrove of the West Indies, he took a joint decision to penalise Pakistan for ball-tampering - a major offence in cricketing terms - on the fourth day of the fourth Test against England at The Oval in August last year.

So enraged were Pakistan by this decision they refused to take the field immediately after tea. By the time they were ready to play the umpires ruled they had forfeited the match - the first and so far only time this has happened in the now 130 years of Test cricket.

Hair, 55, says since taking that decision the ICC have caved into pressure, primarily from cricket's Asian bloc (India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh), which has seen him denied the chance to continue to stand in major international matches.

His lawyer Robert Griffiths, a member of the committee of Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), which owns London's Lord's Cricket Ground, told the tribunal that Malcolm Speed, the chief executive of the ICC, wanted fellow Australian Hair to continue to stand in Tests and One-Day Internationals, but Pakistan and India were opposed.

Monday, AFP