On this day: Umpire Darrell Hair sparks controversy in Melbourne

From ball-tampering to spot-fixing, pitches favouring the home team excessively to bad umpiring decisions affecting the outcome of games, cricket, like any sport, has its fair share of controversies. However, there have been certain unique issues that have cropped up and one such was the Muttiah Muralitharan-Darrel Hair’s no bowling saga. On the first day of the second Test between Australia and Sri Lanka at Melbourne in 1995, Hair no-balled Muttiah Muralitharan seven times in three overs for throwing. Interestingly, all the while he stood at the bowler’s end.

Historically, and due to the practical problems of having to watch the bowler’s arm and foot at the same time, calls for chucking had been carried out by the square-leg umpires. Steve Dunne, the New Zealand umpire standing at square-leg, had no problems with Murali’s action. He did not call Murali even when he was brought on from his end. Later Dunne pointed out that the rules stipulated that any suspect action would have to be reported to the match referee rather than being called immediately. It was the ICC who had to rule a bowler’s action legitimate or otherwise.

However, Hair was convinced with his decision and refused to back down. The Sri Lankan skipper Arjuna Ranatunga left the field a few minutes later to consult with his team management on what the approach on the field should be. On his return, he persisted with Murali from Hair’s end and was called twice more. Ranatunga subsequently removed Murali from the attack and re-introduced him shortly from the other end. He bowled 32 overs after being no-balled without being no-balled again by Hair.

Notably, ICC has a very well laid out template to examine illegal actions, get them remedied, and re-introduce the guilty bowler back into mainstream cricket. The Lankan team management, visibly upset by the event, at the end of the match sought permission from the ICC to confer with Hair to understand the issue he saw in the spinner’s action so they could work towards remedying it. While ICC agreed to the proposal, the Australian Cricket board did not allow it, fearing that it would become the norm for players to question umpires and seek time with them. The Sri Lankans then decided to play Murali regardless, in matches during the ODI series to follow in which Hair would not officiate.