Sri Lanka protest against Hair's appointment

Karachi, Oct 3: The Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka (BCCSL) has protested to the ICC Chief Executive David Richards against the appointment of Darrell Hair as an umpire in the knockout tournament in Kenya.

According to CricInfo, in a strongly worded letter, the BCCSL said on Monday, "You may note that any violations of the principle of natural justice, bias or apparent bias will be strongly resisted by the BCCSL."

What the BCCSL is worried about is that Hair's presence may affect the team's morale in the tournament.

Hair has been assigned to officiate the second round match between Pakistan and the winners of the Sri Lanka-West Indies game on Oct 8. The Sri Lanka-West Indies match is scheduled for Oct 4.

Since he called world-class off-spinner Muthiah Muralitharan for throwing five years ago in Australia, the BCCSL had taken a tough stand against Hair standing in any matches involving Sri Lanka.

The case against Hair was further compounded when the umpire made forceful and critical comments with regard to Muralitharan's bowling action in his autobiography, The Decision Maker. Hair desribed Muralitharan's action as 'diabolical' and said that he had no hesitation in calling him again for throwing.

On a strong protest lodged by the BCCSL, Hair was taken to task and was charged by the ICC with bringing the game into disrepute. The judge who conducted the hearing found Hair guilty of two of the four charges levelled against him - breach of confidentiality which is detrimental to cricket, and passing critical comments about the performance of ICC referee Graham Dowling.

The BCCSL is of the opinion that against such a background, Hair is unsuitable to officiate any match involving Sri Lanka. In 1998, Hair himself voluntarily decided to stand down from Sri Lankan matches.

Hair has not only shown a dislike for Muralitharan's bowling action but he has also in his book, revealed the contents of a previously confidential report on two other Sri Lankan bowlers Kumar Dharmasena (who is a member of the team in Kenya) and Ruwan Kalpage.

The developments within the next few days on this key issue may take the limelight away from the Kenyan tournament unless the BCCSL and the ICC come to an amicable settlement.