Former Australian Test umpire Darrell Hair has been found guilty of stealing cash from a liquor shop where he was working.
He has been handed an 18-month good behaviour bond by an Australian after he pleaded his guilty to one charge of embezzlement and one of stealing as reported by local media on Tuesday.
Hair, who stirred controversy when he no-balled Sri Lankan legend Muttiah Muralitharan for an illegal bowling action in 1995 is reported to have taken $ 9,005.75 between February 25 and April 28 this year.
Reportedly, he suffered from gambling addiction, and his boss fired him when he found him stealing money from the CCTV footages. Magistrate Michael Allen didn’t record a conviction but punished Hair with 18-month good behaviour bond keeping in mind that he returned all the money and was in counselling.
Hair, who called out Muralitharan for having an illegal bowling action, later said that many officials were of the same view, but they were scared to intercede.
However, the off-spinning genius who holds the record for highest number of wickets in both the Test and ODI cricket was later cleared by the International Cricket Council (ICC) after undergoing a biomechanical test on his bowling action.
The 65-year-old former umpire was also one of the officials who was officiating the match in 2006 when Pakistan became the first side in history to forfeit a match after being penalised five runs for ball tampering in the fourth Test match against the hosts England in Oval.
Hair was removed from ICC’s panel of Test umpires but was restored two years back after lodging a racial discrimination suit against the governing body based on the fact that Billy Doctrove, his partner was not punished.
Hair has officiated in 78 Test matches and 139 ODI’s over a span of 17 years and resigned in March 2008 after officiating two Test matches between England and New Zealand coming out of a ban to concentrate more on development and coaching.