ICC hints at forgiving Hair, matter to be discussed in meeting

London, Aug 27 (UNI) Despite the furore he raised by asking for money to step down from the ICC Elite Panel of Umpires, Darrell Hair may still have a future as the governing body is prepared to bury the hatchet and allow the Australian to continue with his job.

''Darrell Hair is one of our best umpires...he's one of the best two or three in the world. He's a very dedicted man, he's devoted to umpiring - that's been his life's passion,'' ICC Chief Executive Malcolm Speed told the BBC.

''We need to let some water flow under the bridge. We have a meeting of the ICC Board in Dubai next Saturday, we'll have had some further legal advice about all of these issues by then and hopefully we'll be able to move forward from some of these difficult questions,'' he added.

Hair has been in the eye of storm since accusing the Pakistan team of tampering with the ball in the the forfeited fourth Test against England. He later offered to quit international umpiring in lieu of 5,00,000 dollar. He, however withdrew the demand two days later and called for an early end to the controversy.

Mr Speed said the controversial umpire would be discussed in the ICC meeting this Saturday and his fellow match-official at the Oval Test Billy Doctrove would be called to give his version of the matter.

''When these charges come before the adjudicator, Billy will be giving evidence. He's been interviewed by ICC's lawyers and made a statement about it,'' Mr Speed said.

Mr Speed said the ICC was correct in making Hair's e-mail, in which he demanded money to step down, public as several legal issues were involved in the matter.

''Darrell sent it to his line manager Doug Cowie, the umpire and referees' manager. He doesn't have authority to hand out 500,000 dollar, to keep it secret, to mislead the public, to keep it out of ICC's audit, to keep it out of ICC's annual reports of which we distribute 5,000 copies,'' he said.

''It had to go somewhere else. It had to go to David Richardson, to whom Doug reports, and David then had to refer it to me,'' he added.

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