Marsh decision was handled pretty poorly: Steve Smith

Steven Smith, the Australian captain has showered his criticism about Mitchell Marsh’s dismissal which turned out to be a crucial moment of the deciding Chappell-Hadlee Trophy match at Hamilton.

Mitchell Marsh, who was batting on 41 tried to play a stroke which rebounded off his boot and went straight to the bowler, Matt Henry, who claimed the catch. Henry raised his hand with a halfhearted appeal towards the umpire Ian Gould. During the delay of the play, the big screen at Seddon Park showed a replay which indicated Marsh was likely to be out. Ian Gould and Derek Walker, the other on-field umpire agreed to refer their decision.

After the match, Steven Smith, Michael Di Venuto, the stand-in coach and the team manager, Gavin Dovey, addressed the match referee Chris Broad and who were told that neither umpire had heard an appeal initially.

After that discussion, Smith expressed that it had been handled pretty poorly while admitting the decision was right.

“I don’t think decisions should be made on the big screen, I don’t think that’s right for the game. I think better processes need to be put in place,” Smith said. “We’ve got a review system in place. You have 15 seconds to make your decision and I don’t think that was necessary for that to come up in that point in time.”

“Neither of the umpires heard an appeal so the game went on. Well it was supposed to go on. It was shown on the big screen that there was a half-appeal so they went upstairs. I was pretty disappointed with the whole process .. it was handled pretty poorly. New Zealand players genuinely believed it wasn’t out and, not until they saw it on the screen, did they change their mind.”

“The right decision was made – he was out, there’s no doubt about that. But if I get hit on the pad next time and it’s missing leg, do I stand there and wait until it shows that up on the big screen?”

However, the New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum disagreed that there had been no appeal to force an umpires’ referral.

“I saw a couple of the guys appeal,” McCullum said. “The right decision was made but the process was far from ideal. It’s disappointing from the Australian point of view. When it did come up on the screen, which is not ideal, I yelled out ‘what the … is going on’. The only thing I said was the right decision has to be made.”