Tony Becca

Darrell Hair should never umpire another cricket match - even though there may be some truth in his claim that he was encouraged by the ICC to make an offer to quit as an umpire following the controversy on the fourth day of the fourth and final Test between England and Pakistan at The Oval two Sundays ago.

The controversy came about after Hair and colleague Billy Doctrove imposed a five-run penalty on Pakistan for ball tampering, Pakistan's failure to take the field, or rather their delay in taking the field after tea, and the decision of the umpires to abandon the match and to award it to England.

All hell broke lose after that with the consensus being that the umpires had not seen anyone tampering with the ball and, therefore, should not have accused the Pakistanis of being cheats - which was what the five-run penalty added up to, with Hair being labelled as a racist, with the ICC defending the umpires on the decisions they had taken, and charging Pakistan captain Inzamam ul-Haq with ball tampering and bringing the game into disrepute.

As bad as that was for the image of the game, however, on Wednesday things got even worse with the news, coming from Malcolm Speed, the chief executive of the ICC, that Hair had sent the ICC an email saying that he was prepared to go - to resign under the condition that he be compensated.

According to Speed, he was shocked and disappointed at receiving the email, it took a while for the full ramifications to sink in, the ICC held a number of meetings and obtained the best legal advice which advised him to make the request public.

Lifestyle choice

In the email, which was made public, Hair had asked for US$500,000 - which would represent his earnings for the next four years of his contract - he had asked that the details remain confidential between both parties, and he had said that the ICC may announce his retirement any way they wish, but he would prefer a simple 'lifestyle choice'.

The email went on to say that this arrangement would in no way prevent Hair from "taking civil action against any organisation or persons currently part of ICC and in particular, members of the Pakistan cricket team and the Pakistan Cricket Board."

"It's impractical to achieve the solution which Darrell wanted," said Speed. "Somehow I'd have to find the $500,000, conspire to keep it secret, mislead the public, and lie."

What is interesting, however, is that few days ago in a release, Hair's lawyers said that Hair claims that in talks with the ICC, he was encouraged by the ICC to make the offer.

"During an extended conversation with on 21 August 2006 with Mr. (Doug) Cowie, the umpires' manager for the ICC, I was invited to make a written offer," said Hair.

Although 'encouraged' and 'invited to make a written offer' could mean that the offer originated from Hair, it could also mean that it originated from the ICC's representative, and if that is the case, that is very, very interesting - especially as the ICC has given or is giving the impression that it came from Hair.

However this thing ends up, one thing is sure to happen or should happen: Darrell Hair should never, ever umpire again.

Although a lot of us did not support his action two Sundays ago, a lot of us did support his action when he called Muttiah Muralitheran for throwing, for the simple reason that he stood up for what he believed while others who also believed shirked their responsibility.

Regardless of who initiated the offer to resign and the request for US$500,000 compensation, Hair has now lost all his credibility. After asking for money to go, after asking that the details of his settlement be kept a secret, after suggesting that the ICC can explain his resignation any way it pleases, and after saying that none of that should preclude him from taking civil action against any member of the ICC and parti-cularly the members of the Pakistan team and the members of the Pakistan Board, no one will ever again respect him.