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Hair will officiate during World Cup

Darrell Hair will be Australia's umpiring representative at the World Cup after escaping punishment over the controversial comments made in his book The Decision Maker.

Hair was stood down for the tri-series involving Australia, England and Sri Lanka after he described the bowling action of Sri Lankan off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan as "diabolical'' in his book.

Australia's leading umpire yesterday answered four charges of breaching clause 8 in the International Cricket Council's code of conduct which relates to conduct detrimental to the game.

But although he was found guilty of two of the charges by the Australian Cricket Board's Code of conduct Commissioner, Judge Gordon Lewis, he escaped any penalty due to a technicality.

Judge Lewis, a Victorian county court judge, found he was unable to identify any penalty process relating to umpires in the ICC's code which meant he could not punish Hair.

ICC Chief Executive David Richards said in a statement today that cricket's governing body may have to review its conduct code in the light of Judge Lewis's ruling.

"We will take careful note of Judge Lewis's views about the inability of the code of conduct to adequately deal with any penalty for an umpire and refer his detailed reasons to our solicitors for their advice in regard to the code,'' Richards said.

Hair first became embroiled in the Muralitharan chucking saga when he no-balled him in the December 26 Test in Melbourne in 1995.

The World Cup programme for umpires begins with a series of warm up matches in England from May 7. The first match of the tournament is between England and Sri Lanka at Lords on May 14.

Australia's first game is against Scotland at Worcester two days later. The final will be held at Lords on June 20.

UNI