Unbelievable that the ICC have re-appointed him to the elite list of umpires.
I cannot stand the over appealing by our Asain friends but he took the law into his own hands IMO. He was so bias against Pakistain, India, Sri Lanka etc, it was embarrasing.
The umpires motto is Nompere = Impartial.
Bad decision.
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The scrutiny he'd come under would be immense
Bear in mind there were 2 umpires standing that day and they both agreed that the ball had been tampered with hence the decision.
There is no doubt that he could and should have handled the situation better but what he did was, by the letter of the law correct.
Still, forgiveness is in the upper echelons of human nature - maybe he should get another chance.
Shakoor Rana was just a poor umpire who made a number of questionable decisions that got up Mike Gatting's nose. Darrell Hair though is a very good umpire especially when it comes to LBWs and catches behind, but unfortunately has a tendency to be somewhat officious the rest of the time and a stickler for the rule book. But he is one of the few umpires who gives LBW shouts when a batsman pads up outside the line but tucks the bat behind the pad. Under the laws if the ball hits the pad outside the line of off-stump, and would go on to hit the stumps the batsman can't be given out if he's playing a shot, hence the padding up dodge with the bat tucked behind the front pad. Most umpires let batsmen get away with this but Hair is one of the few who is prepared to give the batsman a warning or two and will then give the batsman out. That is good umpiring.
I can't see him ever umpiring a match involving any of the Asian teams again, and he can't umpire matches involving Australia, so that leaves New Zealand, England, South Africa and the Windies, plus Zimbabwe if they are ever allowed to play Test cricket again. I think we England fans had better get used to seeing a lot more of him.
Actually I believe he made the decision, the other umpire (Billy Doctrove) was merely informed and that was that. The problem in this situation was that there was no evidence, subsequently examination of the TV pictures failed to spot any of the Pakistani fielders tampering with the ball and at the inquiry the ball showed no obvious signs of having been tampered with. In Test cricket the ball is given to the umpire at the end of each over and at the fall of a wicket so what he saw musat have happened in a very short time frame. In any case the docking of runs is the last penalty that an umpire can invoke, the others being a warning and then replacing the ball, however Hair went straight for the docking of runs and replacing the ball worse from the Pakistani perspective was that when the ball is changed England as the other team were given the choice of the fresh ball and naturally chose one that had been battered around the park with already and thus offered nothing for the bowlers. Again this is in the rule book, so legit, but it rubbed salt into the wound for the Pakistani team. More so as Pietersen thrashed this ball around the park and scored a rapid 96.
As I say above he's a good umpire at decision making, but poor at the PR side of the game. Hopefully in his new incarnation he'll be a bit less arrogant.