Umpires guarding their authority (12 July 1999)

12 July 1999

Umpires guarding their authority

Tony Best

Bajans who threw bottles during a recent international cricket match at Kensington Oval haven't heard the last of the incident.

The West Indies Cricket Umpires Association (WICUA) plans to complain to the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) about what happened in Barbados in an effort to prevent it from happening again.

What the regional umpires' body intends to complain about is the decision by the cricketing authorities to recall Sherwin Campbell to the crease after he was given out by an umpire during the One-Day International between the West Indies and Australia.

"It undermines the authority of umpires," said Rudolph Harper, a former Guyana judge who is president of the regional umpiring body. He was in New York City for the association's convention.

"If the umpire believed, and he did believe, that the man was run out and that the Australian player did not deliberately hit him, then he was out and therefore shouldn't have been allowed to bat again.

"I don't think it is good for umpiring," he told NationSport. "It may be expedient to do at the time but it is not right."

That's why the umpires' representative on the WICB intends to raise the issue.

Campbell was recalled after bottles were thrown onto the field by spectators who felt he was obstructed by Australian player Brendon Julian.

Harper does not believe the bottle-throwing would have any lasting negative impact on international cricket being played in Barbados.

He also doesn't expect that the problem which arose in Guyana when spectators rushed onto the field and brought a premature end to a One-Day International between Australia and the West Indies would hurt Guyana.

"I don't think it is going to have a grave effect on cricket in Guyana or Barbados," he said.

Indeed, he insisted that the Guyana problem, which was soundly criticised by Raman Subba Row, the former English Test cricketer who was the International Cricket Council's referee in the region during the Australia-West Indies series, was overblown.

"I think they are playing up this thing too much," Harper said. "It is true that the spectators ran onto the field, we know that.

"The only way you can remedy that is by having cricket grounds like baseball grounds that you are so high up (in the stands) that you can't jump down."

He pointed out that spectators ran onto the field during the recent World Cup series in England.

Source :: The Barbados Nation