Darrell Hair sues the ICC for racial discrimination
Everyone's favourite umpire Darrell Hair has pulled off another howler as he sues the ICC for racial discrimination. In further proof that Hair has lost complete touch with reality, he's insisting he's being persecuted because he's white. Here's what Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Nasim Ashraf has to say:
"I am just flabbergasted. This is the most preposterous thing I've heard, when our lawyer told me we had received a letter from his solicitors accusing the ICC of racial discrimination and naming the Pakistan Cricket Board as a party to this issue. Mr Hair was removed from the ICC panel of umpires because of his bad umpiring and poor judgement. I think this is probably another manifestation of Mr Hair's mental status. I daresay it sounds almost as if he's not only just very impetuous or stubborn, if he made a mistake a man should have stood up and said 'I made a mistake'. For him earlier to have also asked for a half a million dollars during the incident and saying 'look, give me this money and I will simply walk away', and now suing the ICC and naming the PCB as a party for racial discrimination, smacks to me of another bit of, perhaps, opportunism.''Hair is arguing that he got sacked while fellow umpire and West Indian Billy Doctrove got off scott free proves that he was fired for being white. Ashraf's response to this:
"That is even worse. I read that and just laughed out aloud because it is crass for him to say a black West Indian umpire was let off when he was a white man therefore he was charged. This (race) has nothing to do with it. Mr Hair was the senior umpire and he actually took over that Oval cricket match. I was present there. We have brought to the ICC even before many instances in which Mr Hair had almost brought Test cricket into disrepute by making decisions that were impetuous, hasty, ill-considered and without any basis of fact. And that is why ultimately he had it coming from his umpiring standpoint.''One of my pet peeves is grumpy old men bitching and moaning about how good minority groups have it and how tough it is for them, usually comfortable, white middle class. Up until today, I had no opinion either way whether Hair was racist merely because I had no evidence. The one thing I was sure of was that he was a cantankerous, bull headed jerk (not to mention arrogant). But this latest bout of persecution complex speaks volumes about his world view. The only discrimination going on here is against brutish, belligerent and I now believe racist umpiring. I'm with the PCB on this one.
| Posted by JC on Thu 8 Feb |  15 comments |
No need for anyone to crucify him at all really. Hair has hung himself with this legal action. How can any reasonable person claim that there is a country of cricketing officials who are racially discriminating against him? Now that is real racism.
Posted by TA on 2007-02-08 01:41:16
Posted by TA on 2007-02-08 01:41:16
Mr Hair is once again putting himself above the game of cricket.
More soon.
Posted by mike jacob on 2007-02-08 06:44:10
More soon.
Posted by mike jacob on 2007-02-08 06:44:10
Regardless of what you feel or think on this issue, everyone is entitled to their "day in Court"; I'd leave it at that and just see what happens. May take a while to resolve as the lawyers will see it as a way to bleed money out of the parties...
Posted by Dan Tas on 2007-02-08 08:32:30
Posted by Dan Tas on 2007-02-08 08:32:30
Just on the legal side, you can't see Hair winning this one - in which case it's going to cost him a bucketload of money. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.
Posted by JC on 2007-02-08 10:55:28
Posted by JC on 2007-02-08 10:55:28
I think Hair was harshly treated by the ICC. However, it certainly wasn't racism.
Posted by AL on 2007-02-08 20:05:31
Posted by AL on 2007-02-08 20:05:31
Now I am flabbergasted by the lack of condemnation here over Hair's utter pomposity.
The man clearly has a wrong attitude towards the Asian countries even thought it might not be blatantly racist. Even setting aside the whole controversy of Murali, he has needlessly provoked the Pakis many times.
The Oval Test was a disgrace of umpiring. He never spoke to Inzi, never mentioned to him about his suspicions of ball tampering and fined them penalty runs on a whim. And quite clearly he was the only pig-headed fool out there who didnt want the Test to be continued.
I was staggered when I read about the Aussie team supporting Hair's stand. Granted that Hayden and co. might not be the sharpest wits around, but taking Hair's side on this one was just not on.
Posted by jethro on 2007-02-08 23:05:48
The man clearly has a wrong attitude towards the Asian countries even thought it might not be blatantly racist. Even setting aside the whole controversy of Murali, he has needlessly provoked the Pakis many times.
The Oval Test was a disgrace of umpiring. He never spoke to Inzi, never mentioned to him about his suspicions of ball tampering and fined them penalty runs on a whim. And quite clearly he was the only pig-headed fool out there who didnt want the Test to be continued.
I was staggered when I read about the Aussie team supporting Hair's stand. Granted that Hayden and co. might not be the sharpest wits around, but taking Hair's side on this one was just not on.
Posted by jethro on 2007-02-08 23:05:48
I don't mind if Hair and Doctrove were both punished but only Hair is a bit dodgy.
Just a minor point of interest I noticed from some news footage that Doctrove removed the bails before Hair did, so he was hardly actively fighting Hair.
After all Doctrove is meant to be a world class umpire not a sheep following the herd. He could have stopped Hair at any stage. I didn't see (in any of the footage) any real arguements coming from him. But I could be wrong.
Posted by Andrew on 2007-02-09 01:14:28
Just a minor point of interest I noticed from some news footage that Doctrove removed the bails before Hair did, so he was hardly actively fighting Hair.
After all Doctrove is meant to be a world class umpire not a sheep following the herd. He could have stopped Hair at any stage. I didn't see (in any of the footage) any real arguements coming from him. But I could be wrong.
Posted by Andrew on 2007-02-09 01:14:28
I think Doctrove was bound by the ICC regulations from speaking out. Am not sure about the law in question, but he definitely could not take a public stand.
Posted by jethro on 2007-02-09 23:09:38
Posted by jethro on 2007-02-09 23:09:38
Re the footage of the bails removal, the footage I saw had Hair just about running to take the bails off the stumps, such was his eagerness. It was like he couldn't wait to finish the game, stick it to the Pakis and buy his moment in history.
Posted by JC on 2007-02-09 23:43:21
Posted by JC on 2007-02-09 23:43:21
Hair, his facial expressions in the field are extraordinary, its like he is smelling poo all the time...I dont want him on my TV screen during a cricket match.
Posted by Ali on 2007-10-02 01:30:46
Posted by Ali on 2007-10-02 01:30:46
Hair was a very, very good umpire... no doubt!
But, to say that he was not biased against the Asians is totally incorrect.
Has he ever called Brett Lee for chucking? (I dont know... please correct me, if I am wrong!)
Brett Lee's action is as bad as Shoaib Akthar's. Both are chuckers in my definition. Okay, the 15 degree rule came much later to exonerate most of the chuckers, but before the law was laid, Darryl Hair for sure had the opportunity to call Lee's illegal action. DID HE???? IF NOT, WHY DIDN'T HE???
Plain and simple... you call an Asian, a chucker, and immediately the media follows you and you are in the limelight.
Darryl Hair, though a very good umpire, loves the limelight. So, he chooses to call the Asians! It is no racism, by any means. It is just a greed for publicity.
Cheers
Mahesh
Posted by Mahesh on 2007-10-02 05:15:27
But, to say that he was not biased against the Asians is totally incorrect.
Has he ever called Brett Lee for chucking? (I dont know... please correct me, if I am wrong!)
Brett Lee's action is as bad as Shoaib Akthar's. Both are chuckers in my definition. Okay, the 15 degree rule came much later to exonerate most of the chuckers, but before the law was laid, Darryl Hair for sure had the opportunity to call Lee's illegal action. DID HE???? IF NOT, WHY DIDN'T HE???
Plain and simple... you call an Asian, a chucker, and immediately the media follows you and you are in the limelight.
Darryl Hair, though a very good umpire, loves the limelight. So, he chooses to call the Asians! It is no racism, by any means. It is just a greed for publicity.
Cheers
Mahesh
Posted by Mahesh on 2007-10-02 05:15:27
To me, Simon Taufel is a much better umpire than Darryl Hair.
Taufel has handled more Asian matches than Hair. THough Taufel has made mistakes, they were those even the players forgave. To this day, Taufel is the chosen umpire of the Asians, at least the Indians.
Simple, Taufel is young, smart, quick.... and unbiased. If he errs, it is because he is human, and not God like Hair thinks he is!!
Cheers
Mahesh
Posted by Mahesh on 2007-10-02 05:19:34
Taufel has handled more Asian matches than Hair. THough Taufel has made mistakes, they were those even the players forgave. To this day, Taufel is the chosen umpire of the Asians, at least the Indians.
Simple, Taufel is young, smart, quick.... and unbiased. If he errs, it is because he is human, and not God like Hair thinks he is!!
Cheers
Mahesh
Posted by Mahesh on 2007-10-02 05:19:34
It's difficult to call someone racist unless they go out and say overtly racist stuff. So I reserved judgement on Darryl Hair for a while, not being able to read the guy's mind. But eventually his inner mind revealed itself.
Posted by JC on 2007-10-02 08:01:50
Posted by JC on 2007-10-02 08:01:50
JC - I agree. To me, neither ICC nor Hair is racist. This racism thingy is used only to rev up the Asian media. Hair is clearly a publicity monger. He wants to be in the limelight at any cost. He convinced (or bullied) the timid Doctrove into removing the bails and penalising Pak for ball tampering. There is clear evidence of that, and that's why ICC chose to let Doctrove go away scot free. Afterall, it was Hair who demanded 500,000 to silently retire away. Creep!
There is not a single Indian in the elite panel of ICC umpires (the last one being Venkataraghavan who resigned a couple of years ago). What racism is Hair talking about? Indians would prefer Daryl Hair to Aleem Dhar (or any other Pak umpire).
If Daryl Hair is a world class umpire who plays it straight and fair, why hasnt he ever called Brett Lee for chucking? Ofcourse, Murali and Shoaib Akthar chuck, but so does Brett Lee, to a lesser degree. Almost all his deliveries over 145kph have a clearly visible bent arm straightening at the point of delivery.
Probably, since it is a white arm, it is not clear to the umpires!!! A chucking black arm would appear clearer against the background, perhaps!!
Cheers
Mahesh
Posted by Mahesh on 2007-10-03 04:59:35
There is not a single Indian in the elite panel of ICC umpires (the last one being Venkataraghavan who resigned a couple of years ago). What racism is Hair talking about? Indians would prefer Daryl Hair to Aleem Dhar (or any other Pak umpire).
If Daryl Hair is a world class umpire who plays it straight and fair, why hasnt he ever called Brett Lee for chucking? Ofcourse, Murali and Shoaib Akthar chuck, but so does Brett Lee, to a lesser degree. Almost all his deliveries over 145kph have a clearly visible bent arm straightening at the point of delivery.
Probably, since it is a white arm, it is not clear to the umpires!!! A chucking black arm would appear clearer against the background, perhaps!!
Cheers
Mahesh
Posted by Mahesh on 2007-10-03 04:59:35
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