Darrell Hair

Darrell Bruce Hair was born in Mudgee on September 30, 1952 and started his junior cricket at the age of 10 with Orange High School and the Police Citizens Youth Club. In 1965/1966 he represented in NSWPSSA under-14 side and then joined the Orange City Cricket Club in 1967. He went on to represent both Orange and Molong Associations in representative cricket. Darrell performed well as an all-rounder, winning his way into the Western Districts (now Mitchell Cricket Council) Colts team to tour New Zealand in 1971. This team also contained a very young Peter Toohey who was to go on to a few years later. In 1971 Darrell moved to Sydney and played two years of first and second grade with North Sydney, followed by eight years of first and second grade with Mosman. In a career move in 1985, Darrell joined the New South Wales Cricket Association and commenced duties in Sydney lower grades. He received excellent reports in lower grades and was elevated to first grade in 1987/1988. The following year he made his debut as a Sheffield Shield umpire. After two years in Sheffield Shield, he scored his first in December 1991 when appointed to the match between India and the West Indies at The . One month later, in January 1992, he received his first Test appointment between Australia and England, also on The Adelaide Oval. In 1994 the ICC created the concept of an International Umpires' panel to appoint 'neutral country' umpires to test matches. Darrell was honoured in being the first Australian umpire to take part in this agreement when he umpired in Barbados in the West Indies. Darrell has never been far away from controversy but in each case, it has been strictly by virtue of him insisting that the game be played according to the rules he is set down to administer. In the Melbourne Test in December 1995 he no-balled Sri Lankan spinner for and this caused worldwide discussion, but in somewhat bewildering circumstances, rather than backing their umpire the world governing body changed the rules of the game to avoid confrontation. The ICC never backed Hair even though his interpretation of the law at that time was 100% correct. Hair was again involved in controversy in August 2006 at in London when he insisted on changing a ball which he thought had been tampered with. The Pakistani team refused to continue the match and the umpires ended the test and awarded the to England. This was the first time a test had been forfeited in over 1000 test matches in over 100 years. The matter has not yet been resolved but regardless of the outcome, once again Hair did nothing but follow the rules he is given to work with. Up until September 2006, Darrell has umpired 124 One Day Internationals, 76 tests, 40 Sheffield Shield matches and 22 State One Day matches.

Written and compiled by Carl Sharpe