Holding slams ICC after being advised to ignore umpiring error
Collected
|| Desk Report ||
The former West Indies player and famous commentator Michael Holding lambasted ICC on their approach regarding the umpiring of World Cup 2019. He believes umpires are getting the easy route after making several mistakes just because its cricket.
Holding heavily criticized the umpiring of Australia vs West Indies match. But ICC didn’t like that approach and struck a note of caution to him with a mail. This made Holding more furious. He replied ICC with more aggression and said, “If those umpires yesterday were FIFA officials, they would have been told to pack their bags and head home. They would not have been given another World Cup game to officiate. As a former cricketer, I think cricket should be held to a higher standard. Is the objective to protect the umpires even when they do a bad job?”
Not only this, Holding said that, it's not possible for him to stay quiet after watching this. He is even ready to pack his bag and return to his home.
He wrote to ICC: “I do not intend to go down that road. I am sorry, but I am not going to be part of that. Please let me know if I should be heading back to my home in Newmarket instead of heading to Cardiff because I don’t agree with what is being suggested here and happy not being part of it.”
All this started in the match between West Indies and Australia. In that match, there was a lot of controversy regarding the umpiring. New Zealand umpire Chris Giffani raised his finger in every shout from the Aussie pacers. Five reviews were against his decision in that match.
The biggest mistake Giffani did was against Chris Gayle. He gave three LBW decisions against him. Among these three, two times Gayle got out of trouble after being reviewed. But he got out at last in an umpire’s call. But there is controversy with that decision too.
In TV reply it was seen that the previous ball was a NO-ball. And if that was given, so the ball in which Gayle got out it was a free hit ball. But as Giffani missed the No-ball from Starc, so it was given out. At last Australia won the match by 15 runs, so people have been talking about that incident ever since.
