Hair

LONDON (CMC):

AUSTRALIAN UMPIRE Darrell Hair on Tuesday accused the International Cricket Council (ICC) of bowing to racial pressure in sanctioning him over the Oval Test fiasco while allowing West Indian Billy Doctrove to go unpunished.

"If I had been from the West Indies or Pakistan or India, I might have been treated differently, like Doctrove," Hair told an employment tribunal on Tuesday. "I was at a loss to understand how my career could possibly be effectively ended unless it was by a racially motivated and racially discriminated process.

"There has never been any criticism about my match management capabilities by either Doug Cowie, the ICC umpire manager, the match referees or the captains.

"I find it incredulous that an ICC sub-committee adopted a position leading to my removal from umpiring top level cricket without me being given a chance to defend the charges against me or even to know what I am alleged to have done wrong."

Hair has filed legal action against the ICC after the world governing body for cricket stopped him from umpiring in Tests, though he remains on the Elite Panel of Umpires.

It follows the forfeiture of the fourth Test between England and Pakistan at the Oval in England last year.

Hair accused Pakistan of ball tampering, a claim that led to the team refusing to take the field and resulting in the forfeited Test.

The ICC, at a subsequent hearing, threw out the ball tampering claims.

Hair has argued that the decision of ball tampering was a joint one with Doctrove.