Tony Becca

Remember Darrell Hair? If you do not, Hair was one of the two umpires who accused Pakistan of cheating by tampering with the ball during The Oval Test against England last August, he is the umpire who pulled the stumps to end the match prematurely after Pakistan had refused to take the field, and he was the umpire who was banned by the ICC in November.

Well, he is back. Hair is one of the umpires named to officiate in the tri-nation one-day series involving Kenya, Scotland and Canada in Mombasa starting tomorrow, and he is one of the umpires named to officiate in the six-nation ICC World Cricket League Division One tournament involving Kenya, Scotland, Ireland, Canada, Bermuda and the Netherlands in Nairobi starting on January 30.

As one of the leading umpires in the world and arguably the best, no one can or should question Hair's appointment to stand in any cricket match anywhere in the world.

The question, however, is this: what has happened, what has changed since November when the ICC decided to ban him?

According to the ICC, nothing has changed.

According to the ICC, Hair was not banned from umpiring in November. According to the game's governing body, Hair was only banned from umpiring matches involving Full members, and if that was so, with none of the matches in Mombasa and Nairobi involving any Full member, nothing is wrong with Hair officiating in them.

There are, however, two problems with that. The first problem is that no one but the ICC remembers that, and the second one is that no one believes that it was so.

When the ban was announced everyone believed that they had seen the last of Hair - at least as an ICC umpire.

As Martin Williamson, managing editor of CricInfo, has written, however, what is happening now is as confusing as the entire investigation into the charges against Hair.

Astonishing

Although they were two umpires standing in the match, although they discussed the condition of the ball before it was changed and Pakistan was forced to give up five penalty runs, it still is astonishing that Hair was the only one accused of doing something wrong.

After acting within the rules of the game, even though he accused the Pakistanis of cheating without proof, it was strange that he was punished - and so heavily at that.

Remembering that Pakistan had accused Hair of consistently making decisions against them and had said time and time again that they would not play in any match in which Hair was one of the umpires, remembering that a few other countries, including India and Bangladesh, had supported Pakistan, remembering that India is the goldmine of cricket these days, and remem-bering that the entire cricketing world was against Hair for the way he handled the situation and that a committee set up by the ICC had cleared Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq for refusing to take the field, was it that Hair was sacrificed on the altar of expediency?

It is also interesting to note that in making the announcement in November that Hair was banned, instead of explaining himself when asked to do so after saying that the ICC had lost confidence in Hair, Percy Sonn, the president of the ICC, stormed out of the press conference.

It is even more interesting to note that shortly after that, Malcolm Speed, the chief executive officer of the ICC, said that although he agreed with the decision to ban Hair he hoped to find a way to keep him in the game.

May be this is a way of getting Hair back into cricket, and when all is said and done, remembering his quality as an umpire, nothing is wrong with that - and especially so to those who do not believe that a man should be destroyed after one mistake and those who, based on the rules of the game, do not believe he made a mistake.

Integrity

What is wrong with it is the way the ICC has gone about it. If the integrity of a man like Hair was above question then he should not have been banned. If the ICC, after two months, believes that Hair's integrity is above question, then he should be cleared and reinstated among the ICC's Elite Panel.

If, on the other hand, his integrity was in question and is in question, then Full member matches or not, Associate member matches or not, he should not be officiating.

What is happening now seems a bit shady, it appears that someone's conscience is bothering him and that someone, maybe Sonn or Speed, is finding a way to get Hair back into the arena.

What is really interesting about the entire affair involving Hair, however, is that Billy Doctrove, Hair's partner at The Oval last August, is in South Africa standing in Test matches between South Africa and Pakistan and Hair is in Mombasa waiting to officiate in matches between three affiliate members.

Umpires Billy Doctrove (letf) and Darrell Hair show the ball to Pakistan's captain Inzamam-ul-Haq during the match between Pakistan and England during the fourth day of the fourth Test cricket match at The Oval cricket ground in London August 20, 2006. The fourth Test between England and Pakistan descended into farce as first Pakistan, then the umpires, failed to return to the field after tea following a ball-tampering storm. - REUTERS