From the Hindu News :
International Cricket Council has accused Australian umpire Darrell Hair of “blackmailing” in an effort to reaching a financial settlement in the aftermath of Oval controversy, an Employment Tribunal was told here.
Michael Beloff, QC, representing the ICC, produced the emails Hair had sent to ICC in which he offered to resign for a one-off payment of USD 500,000.
“I suggest that this is an example of you saying ‘if you don’t accept the offer, I am going to make all sorts of allegations around the racism issue’,” Beloff said.
“It was blackmail, wasn’t it?”
Hair is suing the ICC for racial discrimination following the Oval Test against Pakistan in 2006.
Robert Griffiths, QC, for Hair, asked him: “You have been described as officious, arrogant, over-bearing, a blackmailer but were any of these given as a reason by the ICC for not allocating you matches on the elite panel?”
Hair replied that “loss of confidence” was the only reasons given.
Hair questioned the integrity of Nasim Ashraf, the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board, and also disclosed a gloating phone comment by a fellow ICC umpire, Rudi Koertzen, after the shock elimination of Pakistan from the World Cup in Jamaica in March.
“That’s great news,” the South African is alleged to have said. “Those cheats can go home now.”
Beloff called Hair’s comments a “scurrilous smear” and “sheer mud-slinging”. He said the allegations had nothing to do with the case brought under the Race Relations Act 1976.