Darrell Hair has been reinstated as a Test cricket umpire after the International Cricket Council (ICC) decided the controversial Australian had spent enough time out of the spotlight.

Hair has not officiated in a major match since the infamous Oval Test in 2006, when Pakistan refused to play amid suggestions of ball-tampering. The 55-year-old was subsequently dropped from the panel.

"The board have decided that he can he can be appointed to matches involving full member countries once more," an ICC spokesman said.

Hair accused Pakistan of ball tampering and, when the team refused to take the field after a break, he and fellow umpire Billy Doctrove awarded the forfeit. The Australian umpire, who is white, was angered by the fact that he was banned while black umpire Doctrove largely escaped censure.

Hair was suspended after demands from the Pakistan Cricket Board, who together with other subcontinental cricketing countries, accused him of racism and bias.

He began a racial discrimination claim against cricket's governing body but dropped the case and has since been on an ICC rehabilitation programme.

Hair, who umpired the first of his 135 one-day internationals in December 1991 and the first of 76 Test matches in January 1992, will now be available to resume as an official in both forms of the game at international level.

Although Hair was never removed from the ICC's elite panel, which provides the umpires for test matches, he was told he would not be appointed to top level games.

Hair has since officiated in one-day internationals involving non test-playing countries, most recently Ireland against Scotland last July, and is contracted to the ICC until March 2009.