Hair offered to quit for $500,000

London: Darrell Hair has offered to resign as a member of the ICC's Elite Umpires Panel in return for a payment of US$ 500,000, the International Cricket Council announced on Friday.

Hair, who finds himself at the centre of the sensational ball tampering row involving the Pakistan cricket team, has offered to quit on August 22.

The ICC's chief executive officer Malcolm Speed told a press conference that Hair's resignation letter was forwarded to Doug Cowie, the ICC's umpire manager. A copy of that letter was also made available to the Pakistan Cricket Board.

In his letter, Hair asked for "a one-off payment to compensate for the loss of future earnings and retainer payments over the next four years, which I believe would have been the best years I have to offer ICC and world umpiring."

Speed said, "this issue has been marked by a series of unfortunate and entirely avoidable overreactions."

The ICC CEO said that Hair did not have any malicious intent during the ball tampering episode which saw Pakistan forfeit the Oval Test match against England.

"I am confident, as is David Richardson (the ICC's General Manager - cricket), who has been intimately involved in these matters, that Darrell had no dishonest, underhand or malicious intent.

"He was seeking to find a solution that was in the interests of the game."

Speed said he was surprised by Hair's letter and consulted three lawyers independently before making the contents of the letter public.

"When I received the letters I was extremely surprised by the content, as was David. I was concerned as to how I should deal with it and in part whether I was required to disclose the contents."

"I then consulted three lawyers. They were consulted independently of each other and didn't know I had consulted other lawyers," he said.

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The ICC CEO lamented that the issue had created lot of speculation and misinformation in the media as well as allegations of racial bias.

"This issue has created unprecedent media and public issue... there is a huge amount of misinformation, speculation and conjecture in different parts of the world. There have been accusations of racism.

"It involves two separate issues. Did the Pakistan team change the ball in an illegal manner? Secondly, when Pakistan refused to take the field, did that bring the game into disrepute? They are cricket issues. The ICC Code of Conduct provides a mechanism to dispense justice on cricket issues and that's the process we are trying to achieve here."

The letter, a copy of which was released to the media, quoted Hair as saying that he was willing to relinquish the umpire's job from August 31.

Hair wrote the letter to ICC's umpiring manager Doug Cowie, which read: "I appreciate the ICC may be put in a untenable position with regard to future appointments and having taken considerable time and advice, I make this one-off, non-negotiable offer.

"I am prepared to retire/stand down/relinquish my position on the elite panel to take effect from August 31, 2006 on the following terms: A one-off payment to compensate the loss of future earnings and retain a payment over the next four years which I believe would have been the best years I have to offer ICC and world umpiring.

"This payment is to be the sum of $500,000 details of which must be kept confidential by both parties. This sum - to be paid directly into my account by August 31, 2006.

"ICC may announce the retirement in any way they wish but I would prefer a simple lifestyle choice as this was the very reason I moved from Australia to settle in the UK three years ago.

"No public comment to be made by me as to possible reasons for the decision."