Cricket: Pakistan will remain in England to complete their one-day Tour but will continue with their attempts to have umpire Darrell Hair ruled offside for future matches involving them.
A first bid by the Pakistan Cricket Board to avoid Hair from now on fell on deaf ears with the International Cricket Council yesterday.
But PCB chairman Shaharyar Khan has resolved to pursue the matter.
Pakistan consider Hair responsible, over and above his umpiring colleague Billy Doctrove, for Sunday's ball-tampering judgement made against them in the fourth Test against England at The Oval.
As the row continues to threaten the limited-overs leg of Pakistan's tour - due to start with a Twenty20 match in Bristol on Monday - Khan made it clear the Hair issue is not going to go away.
"They have received a letter from me. The obvious first knee-jerk reaction is that no country can dictate who is going to be umpire," Khan reasoned.
"But it has happened before, with the Sri Lankans. Mr Hair was out for a year. We will say that once we give our reply - probably much more than that."
Hair, who has a sizeable list of controversies already behind him in a significant career as a Test and one-day international umpire, did indeed take a break from officiating in Sri Lanka matches.
Hair's absence from those fixtures followed his decision to report Sri Lanka's master off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan for a suspect bowling action in 1995.
Even as Khan last night welcomed the expected arrival in England of the ICC's chief executive Malcolm Speed in the hope of a quick resolution to the ongoing crisis following the unprecedented Oval abandonment, he was having to digest the initial response from on high about Hair's future.
Speed's flight to England is likely to be in advance now of an ICC disciplinary hearing against Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq — on charges of ball-tampering and bringing cricket into disrepute — which was initially scheduled to take place tomorrow.
That cannot happen, because chosen match referee Ranjan Madugalle is unable to leave Sri Lanka while he attends to a family problem there.
Pakistan are minded to wait for Madugalle to become available — reporting he is their "preferred" option and that he is also favoured by England.
While the furore over Inzamam's Oval protest continues to rumble on, Speed has left little doubt about where the ICC stand on Hair.
"It remains the role of the ICC and not our members to appoint umpires," he said. "The appointments are made without fear of favour."