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/ 19 March 2008

Inzamam ‘disgusted’ by Hair’s return

Former Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq was ”shocked and disgusted” by controversial umpire Darrell Hair’s reinstatement, but Australia welcomed the move on Wednesday. Inzamam clashed with Hair in the forfeited Oval Test between Pakistan and England in August 2006, which led to the Australian umpire’s ban from standing in top-level matches.

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/ 19 March 2008

ICC reinstates Hair and shortens 2011 World Cup

The International Cricket Council (ICC) restored controversial Australian Darrell Hair as a Test and one-day international umpire on Tuesday and decided to shorten the 2011 World Cup. Cricket’s governing body also said a ”full independent security assessment” would be made before violence-hit Pakistan staged the Champions Trophy in September.

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/ 11 January 2008

Bucknor: Honourable man who made honest mistakes

Steve Bucknor looks a weary man. Hardly surprising, of course, given the delinquency that surrounded him and Mark Benson in the course of five days in Sydney. Now that he has been jettisoned from officiating in Perth’s third Test between Australia and India and, taking the positive view, he can at least put his feet up for a few days and watch.

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/ 8 January 2008

Crisis in world cricket

International cricket officials were on Monday night locked in intense negotiations to try to resurrect India’s tour of Australia after allegations of racism against one of the tourists’ leading players threatened to plunge the game into crisis. The Australians allege that Singh called Symonds a ”monkey” in a heated exchange during the second Test in Sydney.

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/ 7 December 2007

Muralitharan, a hero for us all

This week Muttiah Muralitharan became the highest Test wicket-taker in cricket’s long history. It’s an extraordinary, heart-warming achievement that will be celebrated at length and in style in Sri Lanka and elsewhere in the cricket world. But there will be quarters, particularly in Australia, where it will be begrudged and depicted as tainted.

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/ 9 October 2007

Hair withdraws racial-discrimination claim

Darrell Hair on Tuesday dropped his claim for racial discrimination against the International Cricket Council after securing a deal that could lead to the Australian resuming his career as a Test-match umpire next year. A statement said that Hair ”unconditionally” withdrew his allegation of race discrimination by world cricket’s governing body.