Pakistan Cricket Board chief Dr Naseem Ashraf on Saturday said the sacking of umpire Darrell Hair is a "fair decision".
The International Cricket Council announced in Mumbai after their two-day Board meeting that the controversial Australian umpire will henceforth not officiate in international cricket.
"It was a unanimous decision and I am very thankful to the ICC board for this very fair and prompt decision, in which they have decided that cricket would be best served if Mr Hair does not officiate in any international matches henceforth," Ashraf said in Mumbai, at the Board of Control for Cricket in India's C K Nayudu Awards ceremony, at the Wankhede stadium.
Pakistan's cricket chief said Hair deserved to be sacked, as he, and not the Pakistan cricket team, was responsible for the forfeited Oval Test.
"I think this is a vindication of our policy, and I've been telling this from the start that the unfortunate incident at the Oval which was a blot on cricket was all because of Hair. It was because of him the match was forfeited and there was so much loss to cricket," he added.
Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul Haq was banned for four one-day internationals following the incident, while Hair hasn't stood in international matches since then. The ICC said he was withdrawn from the ICC Champions Trophy because of "security concerns".
"If Inzamam can get a ban for coming late on to the field, then the person who was responsible for that [Hair] should also have been investigated.
"And the incident was investigated and heavily discussed at the ICC Board meeting. I'm thankful to everyone for it and cricket has won today," he added.
He also said that Pakistan is not responsible for the compensation of the forfeited Oval Test, which is being demanded by the English Cricket Board.
"England have and are making the compensation claim for the Test match. Our position is that we are not responsible for the forfeiture, because we never said that we didn't want to play," the PCB chief said.
"In fact, all the umpires refused to play even the third and the fourth umpires didn't come out. One important thing that was discussed in the Board meeting today was the role of the match referee, Mike Procter, and how his role should be changed in the future to avoid such a scenario," he said.
