'Pakistan pushing to remove Hair from elite panel'

29 Aug, 2006

The Pakistan Cricket Board is pushing for Darrell Hair's removal from the International Cricket Council's (ICC) list of elite umpires before the Champions Trophy in India in October.
"Pakistan has held discussions with some other (ICC) member boards on this issue and are confident that after the Hair demand for money, it would be able to move a motion asking for the Australian's removal from the elite panel," a PCB official told Reuters on Monday.
Hair sparked a major incident when he changed the ball and penalised the Pakistan team five runs for alleged ball-tampering in the controversial fourth and final Test against England at the Oval.
ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed announced last week that Hair had requested $500,000 as a one-off payment to quit the ruling body's elite panel of umpires during discussions with ICC umpires' manager Doug Cowie.
Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq is facing an ICC disciplinary hearing, probably in mid-September, over charges of alleged ball-tampering and bringing the game into disrepute.
The ICC's executive board meets in Dubai on September 2 to discuss the issues resulting from the Oval test, including the charges brought against Inzamam. The PCB official said that Pakistan wanted the charges against Inzamam withdrawn after the announcement about Hair's one-off payment request.
Hair said he was encouraged by the ICC to make an offer to quit as an umpire following the Oval match. The ICC responded earlier on Monday by saying it had never discussed a financial offer with Hair.

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