As always, the Indian Premier League once again struck with the poor umpiring calls in the tournament. We came across quite a few incidents when umpiring looked quite ordinary on the field. There have been few teams, who gained the advantage of it while few teams are on the wrong side of things. Meanwhile, Zaheer Khan makes his voice on the umpiring blunders.
Recently, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the skipper of Chennai Super Kings walked to the middle to argue with the umpire at Jaipur. The incident took place in the game between Chennai and Rajasthan, where they ended up winning the last ball thriller.
Regarding the same, Dhoni was charged under Article 2.20 of the IPL’s Code of Conduct refers to actions that are contrary to the spirit of the game. The 50% fine levied on Dhoni is the minimum sanction for a Level 2 offence for the first time. Dhoni accepted the charges as well.
Umpiring is not an easy job – Zaheer Khan
In another story, which took place in the match between Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bangalore, the blunder from the umpire completely changed the complexion of the game.
In the last ball of the over, Lasith Malinga overstepped when RCB required 6 runs to draw the game. Though he bowled a brilliant low full-toss to deny the batsman from going for a big shot, he failed to land his foot inside the crease.
But, umpire failed to spot the no-ball, which left Virat Kohli fuming. He immediately called for a good standard in the umpiring, as Indian Premier League is not a local tournament to commit such mistakes.
Ahead of Mumbai Indians (MI) clash versus Rajasthan Royals (RR), which took place on Saturday (April 13), Zaheer sympathised with the umpires and told the reporters, “Well, I think a lot of things have improved and there is always room for improvement. So in terms of standards of umpiring, it’s not an easy job and the more pressure you put on them (the umpires), it’s going to be even more difficult.
”You know as long as the right call has been made it is fine. Yes in this tournament so far we have seen few incidents where things have gone little out of hand, but as long as the umpiring is consistent throughout the game, then it should be ok,” added the 40-year-old.
Well, it would be interesting to see how things would turn out in the upcoming games in IPL 2019. After the incident, the umpires are asking for a no-ball check to the third umpire more often than not when a wicket falls.