Australia captain Ricky Ponting has backed controversial umpire Darrell Hair to return to international cricket, saying he was one of the best in the business.
Hair told Australian media on Wednesday that he would travel to India for the Champions Trophy next month despite many believing his career was over following the fiasco at the Oval Test between England and Pakistan last month.
Ponting said it would be good to have his countryman back.
”If he’s one of the best umpires in international cricket then of course he should be umpiring,” Ponting said in Malaysia, where Australia are playing a tri-series with the West Indies and India.
”You need to have the best umpires umpiring cricket at the highest level and obviously Darrell has been on the international panel for a long time.
”There’s been a bit happening over the last month or so with Darrell but I have always considered him to be a very good umpire and we will see how he performs in the Champions Trophy.
”I think it would be good for Darrell to get back on the horse again. I’m not sure what sort of reception he will receive in India, but at the end of the day, that probably doesn’t really matter.
”As I say, it is important to have the best umpires umpiring international cricket and obviously the ICC consider him to be one of those. If he wasn’t he wouldn’t be there in the first place.”
He brushed off concern that Hair would be limited in his options, given that Pakistan and Sri Lanka both have serious reservations about his umpiring and that Australian games were off limits because of his nationality.
”I’m not sure if it’s been said he can’t umpire Pakistan games, and it certainly hasn’t been said he can’t umpire Sri Lankan games, so the only team he can’t umpire is us, and it’s not up to me to make those decisions,” Ponting said.
Hair was thought to be finished after the Oval Test ended in bizarre fashion when Pakistan refused to take the field after tea on the fourth day in protest at being accused of ball-tampering by Hair and fellow umpire Billy Doctrove.
The move led to the umpires awarding the match to England — the first forfeit in the 129-year history of Test cricket — and triggering the biggest crisis in the sport since the match-fixing scandal in 2000.
Pakistan captain Inzamam ul-Haq was subsequently charged with ball-tampering and bringing the game into disrepute while Hair added to the chaos when it was revealed he offered to quit the elite panel of umpires for $500 000.
Hair later withdrew the offer and issued a public apology for demanding the money. — AFP
