Umpire Darrell Hair offered to resign in the wake of the fourth Test fiasco if the ICC paid him US$500,000, according to ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed on Friday.
Speed said, "On Tuesday, 22 August (two days after the incident at The Oval), I was handed a letter written on that day by Darrell Hair to Doug Cowie, who is the ICC umpires and referees manager. … It is fair to say I was extremely surprised by the content and concerned as to how I should deal with it. In the letter, Darrell Hair offered to leave his job as a top official in the ICC in exchange for a payment of $US500,000." Hair responded to Speed's public disclosure of his letter by claiming he rescinded the offer. "There is now a communication from myself to the ICC in the public domain," Hair said in a statement.
"This correspondence was composed after a very difficult time and was revoked by myself two days later after a period of serious consideration. There was no malicious intent behind this communication with the ICC.”