Umpires Let down brave WI

The Australia vs West Indies match in the ICC Cricket Word Cup was full of controversy with the Caribbean side being successful in four reviews. We witnessed action-packed game at Trent Bridge in which Chris Gayle got out to a MItchell Starc on a ball that should have been a free hit with Australia eventually winning by 15 runs.

Both on-field umpires, Chris Gaffaney and Ruchira Palliyaguruge, ended up getting two decisions overturned per head with the New Zealand official also failing to notice a very obvious no-ball call, the ball before Mitchell Starc dismissed Chris Gayle. The veteran opener in fact was given out thrice, and reviewed all three decisions, the first two clearly finding umpire Gaffaney in the wrong. The first was a caught-behind decision, where replays showed the ball scraping past the off-stump and missing the bat en route to Alex Carey’s gloves. Then came a full-toss that smashed into Gayle’s heel, with the impact clearly outside leg-stump. The lbw call against Gayle in the next over stayed with the ball shown clipping the leg-stump, but a replay of the previous delivery showed Starc’s front-foot having landed quite a few inches outside the popping crease, and meant Gayle had got out to a potential free-hit delivery.

Does this atrocious decisions cast any shadow on umpiring bias or quality?

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