Umpires need more power

The repercussions from last Monday's time-wasting antics at Kensington Oval are not difficult to imagine.

Every club team this season has been given licence by International Cricket Council (ICC) match referee Mike Denness to use the blatant methods of Dinanath Ramnarine and Merv Dillon whenever it comes down to a tight finish and defeat looms.

And, as we saw on Monday, the umpires are utterly powerless to do anything about it.

Steve Bucknor did give an official warning to Ramnarine but the most he could have done, had he been forced to issue another, was to penalise the West Indies five penalty runs. That, in the circumstances, would have been utterly pointless.

Test cricket is the highest level of the game. It sets the standards for everyone to follow, not least the youth who emulate their heroes. The West Indies Cricket Board, Cable & Wireless and Scotiabank have launched a vigorous campaign to entice them back with their merchandising, television and Kiddie Cricket.

What happened while Ramnarine called on the physio for on-field treatment and dropped his trousers and Dillon changed his boots was a lamentable advertisement for the game.

That it has happened before does not justify it. Had two South Africans indulged in the same foolishness we would have been as passionately indignant as they were, probably more so.

The whole episode places the onus on the ICC to give the umpires more power to deal with delaying tactics and to eliminate the various interruptions that now so frequently hold up play.

The on-field treatment of injuries, genuine or otherwise, has now become standard operating procedure. We even saw an operation for the insertion of three stitches in a cut to Jimmy Adams' chin performed on the square at the Antigua Recreation Ground last year.

Time is also repeatedly taken up by players coming out with shin guards or helmets for close fielders and with water for bowlers who can't stand the heat.

In the past, Ramnarine would have had to either continue batting or retire hurt and those who developed a thirst three overs into the day would have been told to wait until the scheduled drinks break.

The ICC now needs to insert into its conditions of play that players with injuries serious enough to need medical attention must seek it in the confines of the dressing room, not in the middle while spectators who have paid to watch cricket are subjected to yet another annoying delay.

And it must give the umpires the power to combat time-wasting by adding on time, or overs, as they do in football.

If they don't, the players, as they so often do, will continue to take advantage of the laxity in the laws in making the end justify the means.