ICC differs with its president, backs umpires in 'no-ball' row

The no-ball ruling which spared Rohit Sharma when he was at 90 during the India-Bangladesh quarterfinal match at the MCG on Thursday, has snowballed into a major controversy with the ICC’s ceremonial Bangladeshi president Mustafa Kamal alleging that the umpires may have been carrying an “agenda” into the match.

The officiating umpires Ian Gould and Aleem Dar have expressed their outrage over the allegation, that too from one of their own and there are reports that the two may be mulling legal action, forcing the ICC to issue a statement on Friday saying Kamal’s “personal views” are regrettable.

An ICC statement issued on Friday night by CEO David Richardson said: “The ICC has noted Mr Mustafa Kamal’s comments, which are very unfortunate but made in his personal capacity. As an ICC president, he should’ve been more considerate in his criticism of ICC match officials, whose integrity can’t be questioned. The no-ball decision was a 50-50 call. The spirit of the game dictates that the umpire’s decision is final and must be respected. Any suggestion that the match officials had “an agenda” or did anything other than perform to the best of their ability are baseless and are refuted in the strongest possible terms.”

The last legal action against the ICC was by Australian Darrell Hair, who claimed racial discrimination after being dropped from the elite panel following the infamously forfeited the 2006 England vs Pakistan Test at the Oval. He dropped the charge in 2007.

Sharma had been caught from a full toss in the 40th over of India’s innings but a no-ball was ruled due to the height of the delivery by Bangla quick Rubel Hossain. Rohit went on to score a match winning 137. Replays indicated the ball was below the waist height when it hit Sharma’s bat, causing uproar in the Bangladeshi camp.

Talking to Bangladeshi reporters later in the night, Kamal had questioned the integrity of the two umpires and implied that they had favoured India. “From what I’ve seen, the umpiring was very poor. There was no quality. It seemed as if they had gone into the match with something in mind. I’m speaking as a fan, not as ICC president. Umpires may make mistakes. The ICC will see if this was done deliberately. Everything is on record. The ICC has to investigate and inquire the issue to see if there’s anything to it,” he was quoted as saying. He told ABP News in Melbourne on Friday: “The umpiring exceeded level of human errors. Not one, not two, not three, not four ... a dozen mistakes, a dozen omissions ... all against Bangladesh. How come,” he went on to ask.