Australian umpire Darrell Hair got embroiled in yet another controversy on Sunday. The following is the list:

The Adelaide Test between Australia and the West Indies (January 23 to 26, 1993) was a fluctuating match won by the visitors by one run. Victory was achieved when Australia’s No. 11 batsman Craig McDermott was dismissed after a 40-run partnership with Tim May. Hair ruled that a short-pitched ball from Courtney Walsh had brushed McDermott’s glove and upheld the appeal for a catch, but many observers believed that McDermott had not gloved the ball.

According to Wisden (1995 ed., pp1086-7), during the Adelaide Test between Australia and South Africa (January 28 to February 1, 1994), Peter Kirsten “had an animated conversation with Hair after three of his teammates were given out lbw.” This was followed by another outburst “when he was given out leg-before himself in the second innings,” resulting in Kirsten being fined a total of 65 per cent of his match fee.

In his only match between Australia and Sri Lanka — in Melbourne on December 26 to December 30, 1995 — Hair called Muttiah Muralidharan seven times in three overs for throwing. Wisden (1997 ed., p.1129-30) stated that “unusually, he (Hair) made his judgement from the bowler’s end, and several minutes passed before the crowd realised that Muralidharan’s elbow, rather than his foot, was at fault”. Muralidharan was brought on at the other end, and was not called by either Hair or his colleague, New Zealander R.S. Dunne, although Hair told the Sri Lankans at tea on Day II that he was ready to call him from the striker’s end. Hair did not umpire another Test match involving Sri Lanka until their tour of the West Indies in 2003.

In the final Test between England and Pakistan at The Oval on August 20, 2006, Hair decided that the ball had been tampered with by the Pakistan players. During tea, visitors decided not to return to the field in protest against the decision. Umpires Hair and Doctrove, along with the English batsmen, returned to the field and spent the allowed two minutes waiting at the crease to no avail. Given that the Pakistan team was not willing to play at that time, Hair removed the bails and the game was officially called off for the day.

MOHANDAS MENON