Erroneous umpiring prompts BCB focus on domestic culture
|| CF Correspondent ||
The overall standard of Bangladeshi umpires literally was exposed due to two poor no-ball decisions during the series-deciding final Twenty20 international between Bangladesh and West Indies on Saturday.
It brought Bangladeshi umpires ability under fresh scrutiny after the decisions of umpire Tanvir Ahmed turned out to be the talk of the country since the incident took place at different social media platform, with many fans criticizing it as ‘disgrace’ for Bangladesh cricket.
Bangladeshi umpires were often seen hogging the headlines for their biasness and poor decision making in domestic cricket but until the series deciding match T20’s at SBNS it was never exposed so nakedly in front of the international audience.
‘’He probably thought it was another domestic game,’’ said a club organizer witnessing the final of the first division Twenty20 at the SBNS on the following day.
‘’It happens every other day at the domestic circuit but there is no one to care and that is where the problem starts because unless you are accountable for his mistake you will never learn,’’ he added.
It was reported several times at the different media that BCB officials often force the umpires to favour the team of their choices in lower tiers of local cricket and this undue pressure often deprives the umpires a chance of raising their standard.
The BCB officials often accused of taking a blind eye on the allegation against biased umpiring and corrupt practice in local cricket only to be left embarrassed. The practice now turned out to be like casualties as the visiting West Indies cricket team was left furious by the decisions of Tanvir even though they won the game by 50 runs to win the three-match series 2-1.
Question were raised regarding the allotment of Tanvir in the high voltage series deciding third match considering he along with Gazi Sohel was included in the ICC panel recently.
The decision to ignore Sharafuddullah Ibne Saikat from being on-field umpire in the high-voltage match was also not taken too well by the ICC officials as Cricfrenzy learnt they raised the question before leaving the country after the series was done.
Mojibur Rahman, a member of the BCB umpires allotment committee, refused to accept it as a biased decision citing that he was allotted so that he could conduct ODI’s in future.
‘’He was allotted because if he conducts three T20’s then he will be eligible to conduct ODI’s. We planned to give him the first break and then later do the same with Gazi Sohel as they were included in the ICC panel recently,’’ Mojibur Rahman told Cricfrenzy though he refused to accept not allowing Saikat as a mistake.
In the fourth over of Bangladesh innings, Tanvir called a delivery of West Indies pacer Oshane Thomas no-ball when batsman Liton Das spooned a catch to Shimron Hetmyer at mid-off.
The decision could not be overruled despite the protest of West Indies, who were at the receiving end of a similar poor call in the same over.
It was only third international match for umpire Tanvir, who was included in ICC international panel along with Gazi Sohel only in November.
Although both of them were new to the international arena, they were previously accused of biased umpiring in country’s domestic cricket for several years and made headlines for all wrong reasons many times.
In one of the notable incidents in Dhaka Premier League match in June, 2016, the match between Abahani Limited and Prime Doleshwar Sporting Club had to be postponed when umpires Sohel and Tanvir walked off the field citing illness.
The preparation of Tanvir also was at the fore as it was learnt that he turned up here from Emerging Cup in Sri Lanka and from Dhaka Airport he moved straight to Sylhet to conduct the opening T20’s a day later.
Abdullah Noman, the acting manager of BCB umpire’s committee, refused to accept it as lack of preparation but insisted that there can be problem with his positioning.
‘’You cannot say that he was lacking preparation because he did extremely well in the Emerging Cup but probably he was a bit nervous,’’ said Abdullah.
‘’What I feel that he might have had some problem with his body position because you see on both occasion he did the same with the no-ball. Instead of standing so close to the stump if he had opted to stand a bit far it could have been a different case,’ he said.
‘’I feel it was human error and he will learn from his mistake,’’ he added.
It was not the first time Tanvir made an error as his umpiring in the second Twenty20 international between Bangladesh and West Indies also did not end without controversy when he called Brathwaite for a wide despite Bangladesh skipper Shakib al Hasan clearly edging the ball.
Shakib, who was then on 20, went on to score 42 off 26 balls, guiding Bangladesh to 211-5 before his 5-21 completed a series-leveling win and Windies skipper was vocal against it in the official presser after the series was over.
Tanvir said that he is ready to rectify his mistakes in future.
"In terms of a no-ball, there is always the issue of the foot and the line being close to each other and if the bowler jumps quickly, there are occasions when it is difficult to spot it,’’ Tanvir was quoted in a leading Bengali daily.
‘’I am new to international cricket, I made a mistake,’’ he said
‘’Every person has good days and bad days. Yesterday I had a bad day. The match just ended yesterday. I am not focusing on anything else. I am thinking about my mistake,’’ he concluded.
Whether Tanvir learns from the mistake can be judged in the future but BCB needs to address the umpiring issue more as it was one of those incidents that disgraced them to substantial amount in front of the world audience.
