Match Referees have to be more vigilant: Subba Row

The match fixing scandal has made the job of the ICC match referee even more responsible and difficult. That is the distinct impression one got after talking with Raman Subba Row, the match referee for Bangladesh's inaugural Test against India, starting at the Bangabandhu stadium in Dhaka on November 10.

The 68-year-old former England opening batsman told CricInfo on Thursday that it is a fact that match referees would have to be even more ``attentive and vigilant'' and anything that seems strange has to be reported to the ICC. He recalled the time when Nayan Mongia and Manoj Prabhakar were batting slowly in a one day international against West Indies in 1994 and he, as the match referee, docked India two points. ``They were playing for a draw in a one day game and I was convinced that there was something very wrong. The possibilities now seem that there might have been betting on Prabhakar getting a hundred, or of course there were lucrative odds on West Indies winning the match. It now seems a case of straightforward fiddling with the game as I recall.''

Talking about the match fixing scandal, Subba Row said it was ``distressing'' and added that the phrase ``it isn't cricket has now been thrown out of the window.'' Asked whether the ICC were to blame for acting late, Subba Row said history would probably say they did but in their defence it must be said it is difficult to pinpoint anything in a case as complex as this.

Speaking about his association with historical occasions, Subba Row took pride in recalling that he was the manager of the England team that played Sri Lanka in that country's inaugural Test in Colombo February, 1982.