Source: Bloomberg

April 28 (Bloomberg) — Darrell Hair will officiate in a cricket Test next month for the first time since he ordered Pakistan to forfeit a match against England in 2006.

The International Cricket Council said today that the 55- year-old Australian and Simon Taufel will umpire the second Test between England and New Zealand in Manchester starting May 23. Hair and Steve Bucknor were named the officials for the third and final Test starting June 5 in Nottingham.

Hair’s August 2006 ruling came after Pakistan refused to continue playing after he accused its players of tampering with the ball at the Oval in London.

It was the first time in 129 years that a Test had been decided in a forfeit. Pakistan’s players were subsequently cleared of ball-tampering, and said they wouldn’t play in further matches with Hair as an official. He offered to quit the game in return for $500,000 and hasn’t umpired a top-level game since.

Hair instructed lawyers to lodge an application to a London employment tribunal claiming racial discrimination by the ICC and the Pakistan Cricket Board. He later dropped the lawsuit.

The ICC, the sport’s ruling body, said last month that Hair could resume his career after completing a rehabilitation program. This included umpiring in warm-up matches at the under- 19 World Cup and at the ICC’s Intercontinental Cup — a tournament for lower-ranked teams such as Ireland and Scotland.

Hair has officiated of 76 Test matches and 135 one-day internationals since December 1991.

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Tags: australia, Cricket, Darrell Hair, ICC, Umpire