A cricket umpire who awarded a Test match victory when one side refused to play denied today offering to accept a "secret payment" in return for his resignation.
The sport was thrown into disarray last year when Australian Darrell Hair was effectively sacked from Test cricket for his involvement in the forfeited Oval match between England and Pakistan.
Hair and his co-umpire Billy Doctrove penalised Pakistan for tampering with the ball, then awarded the win to England when Pakistan refused to continue the match in protest.
In the days after the match, while controversy raged around the cricketing world, Hair emailed his manager at the International Cricket Council (ICC) offering to resign in return for a one-off payment of US$500,000.
But Hair rejected an allegation made by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) that his offer constituted a "secret payment", or compromised his position.
"It wasn't a secret payment: I was negotiating a settlement, which I believe everyone is entitled to do," he said. "There was nothing secretive about it, but I expected confidentiality."
Within days, the chief executive of the ICC, Malcolm Speed, had released the email exchange about the offer to the media, saying the idea was "wholly inappropriate".
Hair is suing the ICC for racial discrimination and racial harassment on the grounds that he — a white man — was treated very differently from his black West Indian colleague Doctrove.
The pair jointly decided to penalise Pakistan, but while Hair has not umpired a Test since, Doctrove has.