Darrell Hair is guest speaker at Worksop
by Paul Barker, 27th January 2006

The February meeting of the Bassetlaw and District Umpires Association will be held at Worksop Cricket Club on Central Avenue on Saturday afternoon 11th February at 2.30 p.m. Guest speaker at the event will be arguably the world’s No. 1 umpire, Australian Darrell Hair who throughout his time has been a controversial character as well as being a top flight official.

The Bassetlaw Umpires Association would like to take this opportunity to invite any interested umpires from the Derbyshire Premier and County League to come along to what should be a most interesting occasion.

Darrell Bruce Hair was born at Mudgee, New South Wales in 1952 and played in top grade Sydney cricket for Mosman and North Sydney as an extremely accurate right arm pace bowler. When he retired from cricket he took up umpiring and quickly made his mark and in 1992 he stood in his first test which was between Australia and India in Adelaide. He has since gone on to officiate in 69 test matches and 120 one day internationals and is widely regarded for his no nonsense but firm and fair approach.

He is currently one of the seven umpires on the Emirates elite panel although at one time he was excluded from the list after he had no-balled Muttiah Muralitheran for throwing in a test match between Australia and Sri Lanka. It was thought at the time that he had been struck off because he had ruffled too many feathers and he was quickly re-instated.

He recently umpired the first test between Pakistan and India and he is booked to officiate the second and third tests in the forthcoming India v England series.

Darrell now lives in this Country and certainly has a tale or two to tell. Remember the date Saturday 11th February at Worksop Cricket Club to see one of the world’s best umpires.