Ponting: Hair “One Of The Best”

“If he’s one of the best umpires in international cricket then of course he should be umpiring,”

These words from Ricky Ponting will lift the confidence of the beleaguered Darrell Hair. Hair is travelling to India for the ICC Champions Trophy, despite most experts now believing his career as an international umpire is now finished.

Ponting also had this to say regarding the controversial umpire:

“I think it would be good for Darrell to get back on the horse again. I’m not sure what sort of reception he will receive in India but at the end of the day that probably doesn’t really matter.

“As I say, it is important to have the best umpires umpiring international cricket and obviously the ICC consider him to be one of those. If he wasn’t he wouldn’t be there in the first place.”

Just what games Hair would umpire during the Champions Trophy is also unclear.

He is unable to umpire games involving his home country Australia, and both Sri Lanka and Pakistan have expressed strong reservations about Hair standing in any of their matches.