West Indies: Captain Calls For TV Umpire In Regional Cricket (13 October 1998)

13 October 1998

West Indies: Captain Calls For TV Umpire In Regional Cricket

by Haydn Gill

Barbados cricket captain Philo Wallace is calling for television replay umpires to be introduced in regional competition.

He made the call after Sunday's final preliminary Red Stripe Bowl match in which a controversial run-out decision went against him.

The big no-nonsense opening batsman had just passed his third consecutive score of more than 50 when Jamaican umpire Thomas Wilson appeared to have erred in giving him out at a vital stage of the Zone 2 match between Barbados and Jamaica at Sabina Park.

Almost everyone at the ground believed Wallace had beaten Franklyn Rose's return to the wicket-keeper's end, but the bespectacled Wilson raised his finger - to the astonishment of stunned Barbadians.

The dismissal of Wallace for 59 off 73 balls brought Jamaica right back into the contest. Barbados, who were then 105 for three in the 24th over, struggled afterwards and lost the match by five runs after they were set 210 in 49 overs.

"I think we need to get the third umpire into this cricket at this stage," Wallace said. "We've got to try to get technology in our cricket if we are looking to go forward."

"We went to Malaysia for the Commonwealth Games and they had a computerised third umpire, just zooming in on the creases.

"We need to look at these sort of things because when you get close decisions that are going to hurt cricket like this, I think it is wrong."

The defeat left Barbados on four points, the same as defending champions Leeward Islands and Jamaica, but the Leewards and Barbados won spots in this weekend's Final Four because of superior net run-rates.

Leewards topped the group with a net run-rate of 1.21, while Barbados had 0.88, and Jamaica 0.72.

The semifinals, on Friday and Saturday, bring together the Leewards and Trinidad and Tobago, and Barbados and Guyana.

The venue is the Kaiser ground at Discovery Bay, on Jamaica's scenic north coast, but the order of the matches is to be determined by the West Indies Cricket Board.

Barbados barely clinched their place, arriving at the score they would have needed to keep ahead of Jamaica's net run-rate with five balls to spare and two wickets in hand. The team, however, only knew about that score well into the innings.

"When we had 10 overs remaining, I went over to the Press Box to find out what score we had to get to secure a place and they told me 197. I came back and told the guys," Wallace said.

"It was from there and then we started to look to get to 197."

During the break between innings, Barbadian reporters made attempts to inform manager Tony Howard about the total required in the event Barbados lost the match, but he seemed more interested in an outright win.

Wallace showered high praise on Hendy Bryan, who enjoyed a fine all-round match in which he took two for 30 from 10 overs, hit a vital 20 off 14 balls, and held two fine catches in the deep.

"I think Hendy Bryan played particularly well. He wanted to go earlier but, because of a little groin injury, we tried to keep him back as long as possible and he brought home the bacon for us," he said.

"I'm pleased about that. It just goes to show that we have good team spirit and morale and everybody wants to win for Barbados."

The Barbados captain repeated his earlier concern about the inconsistent display in the field.

Despite the catches by Bryan and the flawless wicket-keeping of Courtney Browne, Barbados spoilt the effort when Adrian Griffith put down a relatively simple chance at long-off offered by Wavel Hinds when the batsman had made 21 of his eventual 47.

"I hope that we can get some practice to get our fielding and our catching going, because against the other two teams, who have good players, you cannot afford to drop them because they'll cash in," Wallace said.

"That's one of the areas we really need to work hard on."

Source :: The Barbados Nation (https://www.nationnews.com/)