West Indian great Michael Holding unleashes on ‘weak’ umpires, Carlos Brathwaite fury at ‘dodgy’ decisions
The umpires from Australia’s tense World Cup victory over the West Indies have come under the spotlight after a shambolic performance that has been labelled ‘atrocious and weak’.
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West Indies star Carlos Brathwaite and former great Michael Holding have hit out at world umpiring after their side was subject to a spate of wrong decisions in the match against Australia.
Brathwaite described some of the decisions as “dodgy” and is sure to be fined for a breach of the Code of Conduct.
“I just think I’d like that for West Indies, we don’t have to use all our reviews and that some of the other teams get a chance to use theirs because every time we get hit on our pad the finger goes up,” the star said after their loss.
“When we hit the opposition on their pad, the finger stays down. So we have to use our reviews and it’s always missing and then we have to use our reviews when we’re batting as well and it’s always clipping.
“I’m not a technology person, I don’t know why that happens, I can just say what I have seen happen over the past few years.”
Chris Gayle was given out twice in Mitchell Starc’s second over by Chris Gaffaney and both decisions were overturned by DRS.
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He was given out a third time and on this occasion the batsman was on his way LBW to Starc when the DRS indicated “umpire’s call”.
Replays indicated later it should have been a “free hit” as the Starc had overstepped the line by a long way on the previous delivery but it was not called.
Jason Holder also had two decisions against him over turned when given out to the Australian spin bowlers Adam Zampa and Glenn Maxwell by umpire Ruchira Palliyaguruge.
The West Indies conceded 24 runs in wides in a 15 run loss, many of them against bouncers. The bowlers, particularly Andre Russell, were upset a number of times at the call.
“I don’t know if I’ll be fined for saying it but I just think that the umpiring was a bit frustrating,” Braithwaite said.
“Even when we were bowling we thought a few balls close to head height were called wides. And obviously three decisions in one over as far as I can remember being dodgy, it was frustrating and sent ripples through the dressing room.
“To lose Chris in a chase of 280, who can probably get 180 of them himself obviously, broke the start that we wanted to have. But the umpires do their job, they try to do it to the best of their ability, we as players go out their to do our job as well, so there was no confrontation between the players and the umpires.
“Whatever is to be done will be done, whatever is to be seen will be seen. But as players we just need to get on with it.
“Obviously we were frustrated but the message in the dressing room was ‘let the frustration end here and concentrate on the next ball’, which we tried to do and evidently Australia came out on top.”
Brathwaite said while the decisions did not cost the game they did hamper the start.
Former quick Michael Holding was obviously upset commentating the game.
“The umpiring in this game has been atrocious,” Holding said.
“For one, even when I was playing and you were not as strict as they are now, you were allowed one appeal. You don’t appeal two, three, four times to the umpire.
“They are being intimidated which means they are weak.
“This has been an atrocious bit of umpiring by both (Gaffaney and Palliyaguruge).”
Captain Jason Holder was more philosophical.
“I think I’ll just say I just found ourselves a bit unlucky to be on the other end of all the decisions,” he said.
“I guess honest mistakes from the umpires, I don’t want to get into the officiating part, but it’s just ironic. I don’t even know what to say about it, but it is a funny situation where all of them went against us, and then we had to review them, but I guess that’s part of the game again.”
Holder claimed to have been amused by the events that led to Gayle’s dismissal off what should have been a “free hit”.
“I saw it on the screen in the dressing room, and I just laughed, man,” he said. “I couldn’t believe it. But again, I guess things didn’t go our way today.”
HOW DID AUSTRALIA WIN?
Nathan Coulter-Nile arrived as a World Cup player and then Mitchell Starc emboldened his reputation as king of the tournament as Australia dodged a bullet from a fiery West Indies at Trent Bridge.
At 5/79, a 2-0 start seemed a long way off for the Aussies. The Windies’ hostile fast bowling was stoking memories of the 1970s and 80s, when they were more flamethrowers than fast bowlers.
But Coulter-Nile spent 18 overs stamping himself in this Australian team with a blazing 92 (60) as a scratchy knock quickly morphed into a stunning one.
The best World Cup knock by a player entering at No.8 or lower guided Australia to a competitive but still sub-par 288 runs. It also smashed Coulter-Nile’s previous best ODI score of just 34.
Still, it seemed Australia was short. With captain Jason Holder and six-machine Carlos Brathwaite set, the Windies needed just 38 runs from the final five overs with four wickets remaining.
Captain Aaron Finch brought back Starc and he brought down the West Indies, winning by 15 runs.
A double-strike in the 46th over removed both Brathwaite and Holder and the left-arm quick capped his death bowling heroics with a fifth wicket in the 48th over (5/46).
The player of the 2015 tournament picked up the first five-wicket haul of the 2019 tournament. In an 11-ball burst across two spells, Starc had 4/2. Yes. 4/2.
SMITH FALLS VICTIM TO CATCH OF THE CUP
Steve Smith has fallen victim to arguably the catch of the World Cup, after West Indies quick Sheldon Cottrell pulled off a one-handed screamer in the deep. After Smith rescued Australia from an embarrassing top-order collapse, he looked set to threaten for three figures in just his second official game back in the side.
But that was before Cottrell worked his magic with the former Australian skipper on 73.
Looking to up the ante with six overs to go, Smith flicked quick Oshane Thomas towards backward square leg.
Cottrell sprinted around, sticking out his left arm and plucking the ball out of the air as it went over the boundary.
He then had to release the ball as he ran over the rope, before returning to the field and reclaiming the Kookaburra.
It comes after Cottrell had earlier missed a chance to take Smith’s wicket in the deep, as he slipped over trying to take a ball that bounced around his feet.
His successful catch likely overtakes Ben Stokes’ over the head effort from England’s win over Pakistan in the tournament opener.
South African wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock also took a pearler to remove Virat Kohli in the Proteas’ loss to India on Wednesday, diving one-handed in front of the slips to remove the world’s best batsman.
Originally published as West Indian great Michael Holding unleashes on ‘weak’ umpires, Carlos Brathwaite fury at ‘dodgy’ decisions
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