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Letter to the Sports Editor…Journalistic errors continue to irk umpires

Apr 18, 2015 Sports

Dear Editor,
In the April 14, 2015 edition of Kaieteur News, Mr. Devers wrote an article titled, “Paul lights up DCC yesterday but umpiring errors mars second day action.” In this opinionated, ignorant-of-the-law piece Mr. Devers succeeded once again in tarnishing the image of the hardworking umpires. He claims that some sort of error was made when the batsman in question was given out by the strikers end umpire. His assumption was that the strikers end umpire “seemed to be in the process of handing the bowler his cap” so the ball should be dead.
I would like to refer Mr. Devers to Cricket Law # 38: Either batsman is out, run out if at any time while the ball is in play (1) He is out of his ground and (2) The wicket is fairly put down by the action of a fielder.
Mr. Editor, with reference to “seemed to be in the process of handing the bowler his cap”, I would like to refer Mr. Devers to Cricket Law #22.4: When 6 valid balls have been bowled and when the ball becomes dead, the umpire shall call over before leaving the wicket. Also, 23.1: The ball shall be considered dead when it is clear to the bowlers end umpire that the FIELDING SIDE and both batsmen have ceased to regard it as in play.
You see Mr. Devers, there is nothing in the law about “seems” to be handing over the cap. When the umpire considers the ball dead he would loudly call ‘OVER’ to let ALL the players know. The umpire will not call over if the fielders are still fielding the ball and returning it to the keeper. Why? Because the fielding side considers the ball to be ‘alive’. Hence, the onus is on the batsman to be in his crease until he is “released” by the call of OVER.
When one sits in the nice, cool, shaded and breezy stands it is very easy to criticize the umpires – the scapegoats of poor cricket. In the stands, one does not understand the context of what is happening on the field, for example, you would not know that the fielding team, on a few occasions, tried to run the batsmen out in similar fashion. And, as a result, you would not know that the umpires warned the batsmen to stay in their creases until it was safe to venture out.
No Mr. Devers, you would not know that.
Maybe one should take the time to find out before going off to write half-baked articles, misinforming the cricketing public. Journalistic arrogance must be stopped. Unfortunately, we live in place where umpires are not given their due respect, such articles does not help.
The laws of cricket can be downloaded free from: .http://www.lords.org/mcc. Please take advantage.
Professional Umpire Mikoowanyah Yisrael.
Professional Umpire Ryan Banwarie.

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