{In response to Darrell Hair resuming his umpiring at Test level in the Trent Bridge Test between England and New Zealand on May 23} 

It would be easy for me to join the Darrell Hair-hate mob but he is an umpire who will call a spade a spade and stand up for what he believes is right and I admire that.

He has lost his reputation as a good umpire. He was always known as a strict umpire but a fair one. The only reason he has lost respect is because of the controversies he has become involved in with South Asian teams, namely Sri Lanka with Murali and Pakistan from the famous Oval Test. India will always back both of those teams. They are all not the greatest fans of Darrell Hair, this is clear.

I am not saying I agree with some of the decisions he has made, especially at The Oval, but I do respect the fact he is big enough to put his career on the line for what he believes in. Many umpires and referees nowadays are frightened to say anything because they might lose their comfortable lifestyles, touring the world or standing in the IPL. 

I think the ICC will now make sure he is kept away from matches involving the Asian bloc, maybe with the exception of Bangladesh, but I think this would be a mistake.

I respect the views of the national boards and I am not in any way complaining about them but the way I see it is that they all agreed the umpires on the elite panel and they should respect and stand by the decision they made or agreed to back then. They put Darrell Hair on the panel so they should not be asking for special treatment now he is on there, no matter what decisions he has made.

It will be interesting to see whether the ICC contract him next year, if Darrell wants to extend his career as a Test umpire, but somehow I don’t think the influential Asian bloc will allow him another contract, no matter how good his other decision-making has been. He will always be remembered for his controversies, unfortunately for him.

Changing the subject, I am very concerned about the lack of Test cricket that Pakistan are playing. I have a feeling that they will be going through 2008 without playing a Test now that India are due in 2009 and with the recent Australia home series postponed.

Twenty20 cricket is the only format anybody seems to be interested in at the moment, because it brings in most of the money. But Test cricket is where the best skills are learned.

I feel Pakistan are being victimized and the board needs to stand up and protest. What happened recently with Australia keeps happening over and over again. Teams send a security delegation, they go back, say things are ok, and when it comes nearer to the time, it only takes a minor incident to get the tour called off.

Pakistan is not the only country where there are problems. In July 2005 the London bombings occurred but the Ashes Test was still played at Lord’s, there was a bombing recently in Jaipur but the players remained there because of the money on offer to them. There are bombings in Sri Lanka also. It only appears to be Pakistan that is affected and this has to change.