Colly welcomes Hair return

19 March 2008

Darrell Hair © Getty Images

England one-day captain Paul Collingwood has backed the decision to allow umpire Darrell Hair back into Test cricket.

The 55-year-old Australian has not taken charge of a Test since Pakistan forfeited the match with England at The Brit Oval in August 2006 when he and Billy Doctrove penalised Pakistan for ball-tampering.

But the International Cricket Council decided to allow Hair to return to officiating at the top echelon of the game and their move has been backed by Collingwood who is currently with the England Test team in New Zealand.

“The times Darrell has actually umpired us I thought he has done a very good job,” said Collingwood.

“He’s good to talk to on the pitch, he’s very good with the players,” he told Radio 5 Live.

“Darrell does get the majority of the decisions right on the pitch which is what you want.”

Hair’s return comes after a two-day meeting of the ICC where it was decided he had undergone a sufficiently lengthy period of rehabilitation away from the spotlight.

“The board have decided that he can now be appointed to matches involving full member countries once more,” confirmed an ICC spokesman.

Although Hair never left the ICC's elite panel of umpires, his duties were reduced to matches involving associate countries.