Australian umpire Darrell Hair, infamous for his alleged bullying ways before he suffered a setback with the Oval controversy in 2006, seems to have mellowed on return. He now has a new philosophy: 'Good umpires do let players know the reasons for a particular decision.'
Hair had penalised the Pakistan team five runs on charges of ball-tempering and awarded the match to England at the Oval without explaining his decision to Pakistan's then captain Inzamam-ul Haq.
The Australian, set to make a comeback to the ICC's elite panel of umpires at Old Trafford for the England - New Zealand match on Friday, earlier saw no need to explain his decisions, believing that doing so would undermine his authority. Now, he is ready to communicate.
"What happens at the international level is that you are purely judged on the number of correct decisions you make. I suppose one of the things that you focus on too much is trying to get things right and how other people are going to perceive your decisions if you make a mistake," Hair said.
"There's a lot of things we learned in the past and one of them was never (to) discuss your decisions or anything like that with players, but I think it's important that good umpires do let players know the reasons for a particular decision," he was quoted as saying by The Guardian.
Hair admitted his confidence was shaken by the Oval row but asserted his umpiring ability is still sharp despite the lay-off.
"It was a bit difficult to focus at first. (But) The only thing that could change that is a lack of confidence because I haven't been out there for a while," Hair said.
"I'm confident I'll be able to make the majority of correct decisions. If that turns out to be otherwise, then I'd probably need to look at if I am still capable of umpiring at an international level," he added.
During his suspension, Hair mentored fellow umpires in his native New South Wales in Australia, which he said helped his recovery.
"Ever since my career first started I've been doing things in the opposite direction -- learning during play rather than being totally prepared beforehand and understanding other people's needs.
"But setting up a mentor system meant that everyone could learn from each other. Being a mentor means you learn a lot yourself. It teaches you how to handle and deal with other people."
Hair also said umpiring is a difficult job and puts a lot of pressure on an individual.
"The intensity of scrutiny on umpiring decisions and a lack of understanding as to how difficult the job is. I think people need to take into account more the difficulty of particular matches.
"Some matches are more difficult than others and there's no doubt about that. Anybody who says they don't feel the pressure is probably lying."
