To be honest, Peter, while I do remember John Snow, I know nothing of the incident you refer to.

---------
Re the emails, I see they now have the exchanges here on the BBC site.

In all this speculation, I find Hairs opening:

From: Darrell Hair
Sent: Tuesday 22nd August 2006
To: Doug Cowie
Subject: The way forward

Doug, just to firm up what we discussed earlier this evening. I appreciate the ICC may be put in a untenable position with regards to future appointments and having taken considerable time and advice, I make this one-off, non-negotiable offer. [snip]

And the reply:

From: Doug Cowie
To: Darrell Hair
CC: David Richardson
Sent: Tuesday, August 22, 2006
Subject: Re: The way forward.

Darrell, Your offer may have merit and is acknowledged and under discussions with ICC management.

Your timeframes seemed impractical at first glance even if agreement were achieved on the suggestion.

Will discuss this further tomorrow,
Doug

Interesting. Although Speed later got involved and said to Hair.

"The matters raised by you concerning your future employment are entirely inappropriate. There is a clear process that is to be followed and it is in place."

I do wonder what might have happened and would love to know what the initial converation between Hair and Cowie was and who did the initial suggesting that leaving may be the best option.