Fletcher defends umpire Hair

CricketFormer coach Duncan Fletcher has admitted England were suspicious of Pakistan's actions during the forfeited Oval Test last year, when the tourists were accused of ball-tampering.

And Fletcher has defended controversial umpire Darrell Hair, who lost his Test status in the aftermath of the scandal having made the ball-tampering accusation that prompted Pakistan to refuse to continue.

Fletcher, whose autobiography, Behind The Shades, is being serialised by the Daily Mail, said in the book: "The Oval Test of 2006 was the infamous 'ball-tampering' match. Pakistan had been fined five penalty runs for 'unfairly changing the condition of the ball' and would not initially come out to field after tea on the fourth day, causing umpires Darrell Hair and Billy Doctrove to award the match to us.

"We were interested in what the Pakistanis were doing with the ball. We could not understand how they were able to get it to reverse swing so early in the innings. With the lush outfields it had been a problem for us all series.

"Using binoculars, we began examining the Pakistanis closely in the field because we thought we had picked something up."

Hair later took the issue to Pakistan, who failed to reappear when play restarted, prompting the Test to be forfeited. Fletcher has given an insight into the immediate fallout and admitted some of the treatment of the Australian Hair had been "unfair".

He said: "Amid everything that happened on the day Pakistan refused to continue playing, I especially recall attending a meeting with Andrew Strauss, David Morgan, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Zaheer Abbas (Pakistan's manager) and Shaharyar Khan (PCB chairman). Interestingly, Bob Woolmer, the Pakistan coach, was not there.

"At this meeting Hair completely lost his temper. Inzamam, the Pakistan captain, asked him why his side were being accused. 'You know what was going on out there,' said Hair sternly and got up and left.

"Doctrove backed him to the hilt but it was Hair who copped all the flak. That was unfair and doubtless it will mean that from now on umpires will not want to make the big decisions.

"That is not good for the game."