'ICC referees persuaded me to change retirement decision

MUMBAI - Former International Cricket Council (ICC) umpire Daryl Harper, who has criticised the ICC for a lack of support in the face of concerted pressure from India's players and media which ultimately led to him being hounded out of Test cricket a match earlier than he was scheduled to retire, admitted no match-referee could persuade him to change his decision. The ICC had engaged the two match-referees, Jeff Crowe (New Zealand) and Chris Broad (England), for the recently concluded series between West Indies and India. Speaking exclusively from his Adelaide home, he said: "No referee had an opportunity to persuade me to take any action (on my decision to retire early)". "My decision to step down was taken five days after the first Test concluded. I was in Pennsylvania and the referee had returned to his home in Florida. A new referee Chris Broad had arrived in Barbados to take charge of the second and third Tests. I discovered the offensive articles when I read an email from the ICC Media Department titled 'Issues Brief' and dated Sunday, 26 June 2011," he admitted. "Every umpire is under stress and every umpire will unintentionally give wrong decisions. There has never been an umpire yet who has not given wrong decisions. I have never known an umpire to intentionally give a wrong decision. The ICC and the member countries are all working towards training umpires to improve their performances. You may be surprised to discover that all umpires are human and therefore will always be liable to make errors. The best umpires will make less mistakes but no umpire will make no mistakes". "Is there an educational programme for batsmen who are always under stress and may sometimes unintentionally hit catches to fieldsmen?" he asked. "I have been sacked from a job I enjoyed for so much of my life. With the support of family and friends, I will now spend more time at home, especially with my newly born grandson who was born the day after the Jamaica Test.