Darrell Hair is back and will return to Test cricket in England this summer.

The last time he stood in a test match was in 2006 at The Oval. What happened next is one of the most infamous incidents in modern cricket history. Along with his colleague, West Indian Billy Doctrove, Hair penalised Pakistan five penalty runs for doctoring the ball. Neither he nor his fellow umpire saw any incident but after inspecting the ball decided that there was no doubt Pakistan had cheated. No TV cameras picked up anything either despite BSkyB having 33 in use at the ground for that test.

Pakistan captain Inzamam ul-Haq was not amused and at the Tea interval after a meeting between his players and the Pakistani Cricket Board members, they decided not to take the field in a protest against the umpires for their decision. That impasse led to the umpires declaring the game forfeited and awarded the victory to England.

Following on from this incident the whole cricketing world seemed to revolve around this umpire. Inzamam was acquitted on the charge of doctoring the ball despite all the ICC officials at the game agreeing that the ball showed sign of being unfairly altered. He was banned for four ODI’s for being the game into disrepute by not coming out to play after the Tea interval.

The ICC held a two-day meeting about Hair and allowed the ten full member nations to vote on what to do. Seven members (West Indies, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka) voted to ban Hair from officiating at Test level. Only Australia, England and New Zealand voted to keep Hair around. He was subsequently banned from umpiring at the top level.

His return has caused mass outcry from the sub-continent and the ICC has already said that he will not umpire any Pakistan games. How can you have an umpire or any top flight official in any sport and not allow them to umpire or referee certain teams?

This umpire has been a controversial figure in the game for far too long and by bringing him back, the ICC are going to open up yet another can of worms. Bringing him back into the game is a bad move and it isn’t a question of ‘if’ but ‘when’ will he be making headlines instead of the players on the pitch.

Cricket is changing. It is becoming glitzier and its becoming shorter. The IPL has led the way and now the ECB and ready to follow suit.

Rumours have been bubbling away under the surface for the past couple of weeks or so. Since the launch of the brand new Indian Premier League, cricket chiefs in the UK have been kicking themselves wondering how they let the IPL launch first.

Twenty20 first came to fruition in the UK and was an immediate hit. The yearly Twenty20 cup has been a lifeline to the first-class counties bringing in much needed revenue in the height of the summer. Playing in front of full-houses, the players quickly learned to enjoy the game despite early misgivings from many.

The Australians had in general, long been against the shorter form of the game but have grown to enjoy it. Those opinions may have been swayed with a little bit of help thanks to the huge paycheques they are receiving for playing the game over in India, not that I'm a cynic or anything...

The main question is whether a huge new tournament can work here in the UK. They are unlikely to go up against the IPL so that means the tournament can only occur at the end of the domestic calendar.

The ICC really needs to keep an eye on the situation, Twenty20 is loved but so is Test cricket. They need to create two six-week windows to allow both competitions to go ahead, thus enabling the World's top players to play without having to turn their backs on their country.

Cricket is at a crossroads and some traditionalists would say that it is in crisis. I wouldn't go that far but there can't be too many of these tournaments around the world, there just isn't enough time and it would dilute those that are there if too many were held.

Also it is unlikely that all eighteen first-class counties would be involved as it seems as though they wouldn't bring in the revenue. So does that mean that we'll have teams from say London, Birmingham, Bristol, Sheffield, Manchester et al competing?

There are so many questions to be asked but the future of cricket seems to be a very different place to the history of it.