Pakistan lodged six charges against Darrell Hair in their complaint with the International Cricket Council (ICC [Images]) that eventually led to the Australian umpire being suspended from duty, an official said.

The news came on the day Australian media reports said Hair was ranked the world's equal second best umpire when he was removed from the ICC's elite panel of officials after his role in the Oval Test fiasco in August.

Pakistan's complaints discussed by the ICC executive board members last month in Mumbai led to a 7-3 vote in favour of removing Hair from international duty last week.

The stand-off between Pakistan and Hair began when he charged them with ball-tampering at the Oval Test against England [Images] which led to a protest from the Pakistan team and the game's first ever forfeited match.

A Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) official said on Saturday that the complaint sheet had been prepared by two legal firms.

"One main complaint was that Hair disregarded his fellow umpire, Billy Doctrove's advice while changing the ball and penalising our team for ball-tampering," the official said declining to be named.

"Doctrove had advised Hair to wait for a few more overs before changing the ball but he insisted on doing it immediately and Doctove then relented," he said.

Doctrove, the official said, had given this statement during the ICC disciplinary hearing in London [Images] in September when Pakistan were cleared of ball-tampering but captain Inzamam-ul-Haq [Images] was banned for four games for bringing the game into disrepute.

VIOLATED REGULATIONS

The Pakistan official added Hair violated regulations by only informing the England team of the Test's forfeiture.

Pakistan's legal team also alleged Hair acted independently and did not speak to the captains in confidence before deciding to call the game off, he said.

The PCB also accused Hair of being rude to the Pakistanis and of undermining the umpire's job by asking for money to retire from the elite panel.

Soon after the Oval incident, it was revealed Hair asked for $500,000 (261,705 pounds),compensation from the ICC to retire.

The ICC has said it will seek talks with Hair to discuss his future as an international umpire as his contract with them expires in June next year.

Sydney's Daily Telegraph quoted confidential ICC reports on Saturday which showed Hair was ranked only behind fellow Australian Simon Taufel in the list of leading Test umpires.

The newspaper cited Hair's last personal appraisal before he was removed from the elite panel which found he was the top-ranked umpire in terms of decision making, awarding 253 correct decisions out of 263 last year.

"Your pragmatic approach to problem-solving has enabled you to find common sense solutions that arise," his appraisal was reported as saying.

"You display a first-class knowledge of laws and regulations."

Cricket Australia has demanded the ICC give a fuller explanation as to why Hair was removed from international duty following the Oval incident.