The curious case of a player being punished for an umpire's mistake

The 29th over of the Indian reply chasing a West Indian total of 230 in the Coca Cola Cup triangular series game at Harare on Wednesday sparked off a rather strange controversy. Carl Hooper tossed up a juicy delivery for Virender Sehwag to drive. The Delhi lad obliged, was beaten in the air and off the wicket, overbalanced and was stumped. Or was he? Television replays showed that Ridley Jacobs, in his anxiety to whip off the bails in a hurry, had the ball in his left hand while dislodging the bails with his right. By the rules of the game, the batsman should not have been given out. The umpire standing at square leg, did not feel the necessity to refer the matter to the third umpire and gave Sehwag out straight away.

When the match was over, the match referee, Dennis Lindsay had a chance to review the video evidence and convened a hearing attended by Jacobs, captain Carl Hooper, coach Roger Harper and team manager Ricky Skerritt, and Zimbabwe Cricket Union CEO, Dave Ellman-Brown. The match referee found Jacobs guilty of a breach of the Players and Team Officials Code C2, namely: "Players and/or Team Officials shall at no time engage in conduct unbecoming to their status which could bring them or the game of cricket into disrepute." The match referee also found Jacobs guilty of transgressing the Spirit of Cricket point 5 of the Official ICC Laws of Cricket 2000 Code, namely: "It is against the spirit of the game to indulge in cheating or any sharp practice."

All this despite the match referee accepting the fact that Jacobs did not appeal for the dismissal or claim the stumping. The match referee contends that Jacobs had enough time to recall the batsman and failed to do so. In the modern game, where the stakes are so high and competition for every place in the side so intense, it is perhaps naïve and even a bit unreasonable to expect a cricketer to do what the match referee expected. What the player should or should not do is endlessly debatable. Rahul Dravid and Brian Lara, two of the `walkers' of the modern era have themselves had to retract their positions simply because of the number of times things have gone against them as a result of umpiring errors.

And yes, while a player's approach to a situation like this is debatable, the umpire's approach is not. It is the duty of an umpire to rule a batsman out or not out. Attempting to effect a dismissal and appealing for the same wicket ends the player's responsibility. In the same breath, one must say that the players are bound to uphold the spirit of the game in every moment they are on the field. When they fail to do so there are ways and means of punishing them. Jacobs, the West Indian stumper was at the receiving end of some rather severe punishment. And yet, this begs the question, what was the umpire doing?

The umpires officiating the game in question, Kevin Barbour and GR Evans should have at least consulted if there was any doubt about the legality of the stumping. If that did not clear up the confusion they should have referred the matter to the third umpire who has the advantage of television replays. In not doing so and thereby declaring Sehwag out, the twosome have done cricket in general and Jacobs in specific a disservice. For no fault of his, a man who has performed so well behind the stumps and with the bat has been made to sit out three matches, not to mention the ignominy of having disciplinary action taken against him.

In recent times, umpires have been found wanting on many occasions by the eagle eye of television cameras. The second Test between England and Pakistan at Old Trafford saw David Shepherd, no less, repeatedly miss no-ball calls, several of which were on wicket taking deliveries. In the Natwest One-Day series that followed, a Saqlain Mushtaq delivery in the final over of a game that went right down to the wire was called a wide despite going off the batsman's glove. Even closer to where this incident occurred, the Coca Cola Cup saw an umpire declare a wide and change his mind immediately after in the last clash between Zimbabwe and West Indies.

In short, umpires have made errors of judgment and yet have got away with them. When a player makes a similar error he is pulled up immediately. If anything, Jacobs has been suspended for failing to dispute the umpire's decision! If you think that's ironic, the icing on the cake will tickle your palate. Jacobs' suspension comes into effect after the final of the tournament. In other words, he has been suspended for three matches to be played during the forthcoming Kenya leg of the West Indies tour. As it happens, the West Indies Cricket Board had already announced on June 13 that Jacobs would not remain with the West Indian team for the Kenyan leg of their African tour, his place being taken by Courtney Browne.

So there you have it a player suspended for an umpire's mistake, and the suspension is effective for matches he is not scheduled to play in the first place. A real comic-tragedy of a situation.