Karachi: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is pushing for Darrell Hair’s removal from the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) list of Elite umpires before the Champions Trophy in India in October.

“PCB has held discussions with some other (ICC) member boards on this issue and are confident that after the demand for money, it would be easy to move a motion, asking for the Australian’s removal from the Elite Panel,” a PCB official said on Monday.

Hair sparked a major row when he changed the ball and penalised the Pakistan team five runs for alleged ball-tampering in the fourth Test against England at The Oval.

ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed announced last week that Hair had requested $500,000 as a payoff to quit the elite panel of umpires during discussions with ICC umpires’ manager Doug Cowie.