Melbourne: Cricket Australia (CA) are ready to welcome beleaguered umpire Darrell Hair if he is shown the door as an elite umpire by International Cricket Council following the forfeited Test fiasco at the Oval.
CA's umpire selection chairman Mel Johnson may offer Hair a place on their international panel, which is one tier below the ICC's elite panel, saying his compatriot still had much to contribute to umpiring, even if his position on the elite panel was vacated.
"Darrell has not done anything wrong and, therefore, there is no reason why he couldn't come back on the international panel," Johnson was quoted as saying by the Sydney Morning Herald on Thursday.
Unlike the elite panel, to which umpires are centrally contracted to the ICC, international panel umpires are contracted by their national boards. Once appointed, they can be used by their home board to stand in one-day international matches, or act as third umpires in Test matches.
Hair's fate is in balance after he offered to quit as an elite umpire in return to a payment of $500,000 (approx Rs 2.3 crore) following the controversy erupted during the fourth and final Test between Pakistan and England.
However, CA communications director Peter Young refused to comment, saying any such possibility was "hypothetical".
Hair could not receive an immediate call-up to the international panel if he were to lose his position on the elite panel, with Peter Parker, Steve Davis and Bob Parry (third umpire) already appointed.
"That will not be readdressed for 12 months," Young said.
Dick French, another member of CA's umpire selection panel, said Hair could take the example of former elite panel umpire David Orchard and hope to revive his career, if removed by the ICC.
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