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MELBOURNE - The Brad Haddin cricket controversy keeps bubbling along, with New Zealand finding an unlikely ally in veteran test umpire Darrell Hair, who said Haddin should have admitted his error.
Hair told the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper that Neil Broom should definitely have been given not out in Perth on Sunday when Australian wicketkeeper Haddin's gloves appeared to break the stumps.
"It's quite clear-cut. His (Haddin's) gloves were in front of the stumps and the ball hadn't passed the line of stumps, so he's in breach of the law and it should have just been an automatic no-ball," Hair told the newspaper.
"Of all the people on the ground, he would have been the one who was best positioned to know. I think he should have owned up to it.
"I saw that (Ricky) Ponting has gone into bat for him after the Kiwis called him (Haddin) a cheat, but I can understand why the Kiwis would be livid about it."
Winning captain Daniel Vettori stopped short of labelling Haddin a cheat, but said he must have known something wasn't right with the dismissal, which prompted angry responses from Ponting and Haddin for questioning the gloveman's integrity.
Haddin admitted his gloves were in front of the stumps - a breach of cricket's laws - but was "100 per cent sure" the ball from Michael Clarke had struck the bails first.
Hair said his compatriot Bruce Oxenford, the umpire standing at square leg, was also culpable.
"It should have just been called a no-ball from the square leg umpire. You can't be stumped and you can't be bowled off a no-ball. But it's obvious that the ball missed the stump as well."
Both sides weighed in with measured tones today.
New Zealand batsman Ross Taylor, who was at the non-striker's end at the time, admitted he was uncertain but felt Haddin should have come forward if there was an ounce of confusion.
"I wasn't quite sure myself at the other end. I thought if there was going to be any doubt they would have maybe called him back, or the players might have said something," Taylor said.
"But as it worked out we won the game so that was the main thing."
Meanwhile, Australian paceman Nathan Bracken said the home side would use the incident as motivation for the second Chappell-Hadlee Trophy match here on Friday.
"If we want to win this series we've got to play good cricket and if it means we've got to use that as a motivational thing then we have to," Bracken said.
"I know as a team that we pull together, we always have in tough times and not winning cricket games is probably enough motivation.
"Now obviously with Hadds having that accusation put towards him, he wasn't happy how it was done, but that's up to him to decide (how to respond)."
- NZPA
