The International Cricket Council (ICC) has finally come out in defence of Umpire Kumar Dhramasena for his controversial awarding of six runs off the fourth ball in England’s last-over run chase, reports the Sunday Times.
In their first public statement since the game on Jul 14, cricket’s global governing body insisted the “right process” was followed by the officials.
The decision in question is over the fourth ball of the final over. A throw from deep mid-wicket ricocheted off the bat of a diving Ben Stokes at the striker’s end and raced away to the third man boundary.
Kumara Dharamsena, who later admitted to making a judgmental error after seen the TV replays, told the Lankan daily the Sunday Times last week that the decision was a collective one as he had consulted his on-field partner Marais Erasmus through the communication system, a conversation that was audible to rest of the match officials.
ICC’s General Manager of Cricket Geoff Allardice has been quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo.com: “They (on-field umpires) had to make a judgement call on the day as to whether the batsmen had crossed when the throw was released. After everything that went on during that delivery, they got together over their comms system and made their decision. They certainly followed the right process when making the decision.”
Allardice also admitted that the playing conditions did not allow the third umpire or match referee, both of whom had access to the TV, to intervene.
“They were aware of the law when they made the judgement about whether the batsmen had crossed or not at the time,” he said. “The playing conditions don’t allow them to refer to such a decision to a third umpire. The match referee cannot intervene when the umpires on the field have to make a judgement call like that.”
Allardice has emphatically stated the importance of having a winner, when asked if there were questions raised about a shared World Cup, at the ICC Annual Conference in London last week.
“The consistent view has been that the World Cup final needs a winner and a Super Over was in the playing conditions to decide a tied Final in each of the last three World Cups (2011, 2015 and 2019),” the website quoted Allardice.
