Daylight robbery! Daylight robbery!
Umpire Chettithody Shamshuddin stole the show after he made a strange decision over a key wicket that could have given Zimbabwe the impetus to go on and win their one-off Test against Sri Lanka on day five in Colombo yesterday.
While the wicket might not have necessarily given Zimbabwe the win, at least it could have given them a better chance, but the tourists ended up losing the match by four wickets.
Niroshan Dickwella, who went on to make 81 runs, was stumped by Regis Chakabva, while he was on 37 runs, which should have given Zimbabwe the third wicket of the day and a sixth in the innings.
But third umpire, Shamshuddin, after studying television footage over and over again, decided to let Dickwella stay on despite the batsmen clearly having nothing behind the line when the bails were taken off.
The rules state that if the batsman does not have his bat or any part of his body behind the crease before the bails are whipped off, he is considered out.
If the foot is on the crease line, but not completely across it as well as touching the ground behind it, he is considered to be out. The line belongs to the bowler.
However, the third umpire is entitled to give the benefit of the doubt to the batsman.
There was outrage on social media on why Shamshuddin even had any doubt in the first, place since the batsman clearly had nothing behind the line.
Former Zimbabwe captain Alistair Campbell, who was in the commentary box, was the first to express shock at the umpire’s decision.
“This is a big surprise, I have to disagree with this decision, and clearly there is nothing behind the line. I don’t understand how this has been given not out,” he queried.
The incident was played over and over again and it dominated the lunch break.
Golfer Ryan Cairns took to Twitter: “Third umpire decision in Sri Lanka feels exactly like that West Indies ‘run out’ in the U19 World Cup. @ZimCricketv absolutely robbed?!”
In the next tweet, he made his feelings clear: “Shocking bro. That third umpire needs his own third umpire. Hope they pull this win off, as it will be huge for @ZimCricketv.”
In their match report, cricinfo observed that Zimbabwe had been hard done by that decision.
“First, with Dickwella on 37 and Sri Lanka on 237 for 5, Chakabva whipped off the bails and appealed, after Dickwella had overbalanced, missing a ball from Sikandar Raza,” part of the cricinfo match report reads.
“It was a close decision: no part of the crease was visible behind Dickwella’s boot. However, no part of the boot appeared to be behind the crease either, so on balance, Dickwella should have been given out. But third umpire, Chettithody Shamshuddin would rule him not out, and Dickwella would go on produce one of the game’s definitive performances.”
There were several contributions over the incident and the running theme was that the third umpire had got it wrong.
Lance Klusener, Zimbabwe’s batting coach, was already seen celebrating in the dressing room.
Head coach, Heath Streak, too, made his immediate disbelief apparent.
BY KEVIN MAPASURE
