Hair apparent in controversies involving sub-continental teams

In 1995, he called off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan seven times for throwing on Boxing Day of the Melbourne Test. It caused a near diplomatic row between the two nations and was the genesis of Australias refusal to tour the island during the 1996 World Cup citing security reasons.

He was not through with the Lankans yet. When they toured again before the World Cup in 1998, Hair timed the release of his book Decision-Maker with the tourists arrival and made further disparaging remarks about Muralitharan’s action being diabolical.

He wrote if he had a choice, he would have called Murali many times over, and not just seventimes, during the Australian summer of 1995.

It got the tails up of Australian Cricket Board (ACB) and embarrassed them enough to ask him to stand down from the three-Test series in 1998.

This summer, Hair got his chance against the Pakistanis only in the last Test at Perth. Wasim Akram, during Pakistan’s bid to contain Australia on the second afternoon, wanted the ball to be looked at by Hair, asking for a replacement. Hair did not as much as look at it as threw it back to Akram, most arrogantly.

Now he has picked up a fracas with the Indians. At the Sydney Cricket Ground, he was most schoolmasterish, as a senior Indian member of the team put it, and reported acting skipper Saurav Ganguly for dissent. He appeared very physical and intimidating during the NSW second innings.

Hair and NSW go a long way back. Born on September 30, 1952, Darrell Bruce Hair was a member of the NSW under-14 side in 1966 and was an opening bowler and a capable batsman. He also played cricket for North Sydney and Nosman inthe Sydney grade competition.

He took up umpiring in 1985-86 in order to maintain contact with the game and rose quickly through the ranks, umpiring his first Sheffield Shield match in 1988-89.

Test recognition came in the Adelaide Test against India in 1991-92 and he was the first Australian umpire to join the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) international panel. He, along with Darren Harper, still represents Australia in the ICC panel.

Hair first came into focus in 1992-93 at Adelaide giving Craig McDermott out caught behind which gave the West Indies victory by one run and helped them square the series.

In 1993-94, again at Adelaide, he caused Hansie Cronje to wince when he gave Gary Kirsten out leg before, a poor decision. The South Africans went fuming at Hair and it was the beginning of often hard, often bitter cricket between the two nations.

Former Australian captain Mark Taylor has an interesting insight of the man in his book Time To Declare. Mentioning the Murali incident ofthe 1995 Melbourne Test, Taylor wrote: “Hair was standing back from the stumps to get a clear look at Murali’s action (before no-balling him) and when the Sri Lankan captain Arjuna Ranatunga switched Murali to the other end. However, Hair’s fellow umpire, New Zealander Steve Dunne failed to call him. I understand that Hair had then asked Dunne to move back and watch the bowler’s action from behind. Dunne declined saying it was a shame. I don’t think umpires should gang up on a player.”

At the tea break, the drama came to a head. Hair told Ranatunga that if he kept bowling Murali, he would have no option but to call him from square-leg. Left with no choice, Ranatunga took the spinner off.

Hair has had a rough past two years. He was a sales manager of a Sydney promotion company and was retrenched. His marriage also broke up last year.

Says Mark Ray, Australia’s leading cricket writer: “The thing is he is still seen as a very competent umpire in Australian circles though admittedly he looks to beintimidating and physical with his presence in the middle.

Ray believes most of the problems with umpiring in Australia stem from the poor pay the men in white usually manage.

Former Australian captain Allan Border agrees. “I think the problem with umpires in Australia is that not enough of them have a feel for the game because not enough of them have played the game at a senior level. If the pay was better, past players could be more inclined to stay in the game.”

Richie Benaud writes in his autobiography: “One of the real problems is that grade umpires are not paid nearly enough and therefore it needs someone with a great love of the game to go out there for a pittance on a Sunday afternoon in a grade match and perhaps be abused by a player.”