Secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) Niranjan Shah told AFP that a letter had been sent to the ICC asking that Hair be kept out to avoid any trouble during the 10-nation tournament.

"We have nothing against the man, but since there is so much controversy surrounding him, it may be better that Hair is not appointed for the Champions Trophy," Shah said.

"We don't want any trouble during the tournament."

A senior BCCI official told CricInfo, "Yes, we have written to the ICC. There may be some unseemly incident as he is already in a controversy."

Hair was at the centre of a damaging row last month over the ball-tampering allegations against Pakistan that led to The Oval Test against England ending in a farce.

Pakistan, incensed that Hair accused them of ball-tampering by penalising the team five runs, refused to take the field after tea on the fourth day.

Hair and fellow-umpire Billy Doctrove of the West Indies awarded the match to England, resulting in the first forfeiture in the 129-year history of Test cricket.

ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed revealed later that Hair had sent the sport's governing body an e-mail saying he would stand down from their elite panel of officials in exchange for 500,000 dollars -- an offer Hair later rescinded.

The ICC's chief match referee Ranjan Madugalle of Sri Lanka will conduct a hearing in London on Wednesday and Thursday where Pakistan captain Inzamamul Haq will answer charges of ball-tampering and bringing cricket into disrepute.

If found guilty of the first charge, Inzamam faces a fine of between 50 and 100 per cent of his match fee and/or a ban of one Test or two one-day internationals.

If the second charge is proved, the Pakistan skipper faces a ban of between two and four Test matches or four to eight one-dayers.

Pakistan have already demanded that Hair be kept out of their matches in the Champions Trophy, but with the hosts going further and asking he not be allowed to travel to India, the ICC may be forced to keep Hair at bay.

The ICC was scheduled to name the umpires for the tournament last week, but delayed the announcement till after the hearing against Inzamam.

Earlier this month, Hair was quoted in Australian media reports as saying that he expected to stand in the Champions Trophy.

"I am down to umpire in the Champions Trophy and I expect to fulfil that appointment," Hair was quoted as saying. "I'm not sure what matches I'll be doing but I'm looking forward to it."

It now seems that statement was premature, and indeed may have only served to rile some of those who have stood behind him so far.

Given the way that the ICC board members usually operate, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, South Africa and Zimbabwe will, in all probability, support India and Pakistan should it come down to an executive vote, and it is therefore hard to see how the ICC could name Hair without there being extremely serious ramifications.