Reports: ICC wants World Cup commentators to be fair while sharing any opinion

On June 6, Australia and the Windies locked horns in the 10th match of the 2019 World Cup at the Trent Bridge in Nottingham. The Aussies, captained by Aaron Finch, won the match by 15 runs courtesy of half-centuries from Steve Smith and Nathan Coulter-Nile followed by Mitchell Starc’s five-wicket haul. However, the closely-fought game was marred by some poor umpiring.

Thereafter, Michael Holding, one of the commentators, lashed out at the umpiring standards. Holding, also a former Windies cricketer, tore the umpires apart for their error. “I am sorry but the umpiring in this game has been atrocious,” he mentioned. The 65-year-old veteran also went on to call the umpires ‘weak’ as they were being intimated by Australia’s appealing.

In the meantime, the International Cricket Council (ICC) has written an email to all the World Cup commentators on Friday, asking them to avoid making such comments. It has also been learned that no ICC official was willing to comment about the reasons behind the email as per reports in Mumbai Mirror.

However, they had unofficially insisted that the email was only to ask the umpires to be fair while commentating and even praise their good work. After that game, while Carlos Brathwaite blasted the umpires for their error of judgment, Windies skipper Jason Holder was subdued in his criticism.

The Mitchell Starc no-ball  

It all started in the third over of the Windies chasing when they were chasing 289 in their 50 overs. Chris Gayle was going after the bowling. He was dismissed twice by Mitchell Starc, but the Decision Review System (DRS) came to the batsman’s rescue. In Starc’s next over, Gayle was given LBW and the Jamaican opted for the DRS yet again, but this time luck didn’t favor him.

Replays showed that the ball kissed the stumps, making it an umpires call. However, later there was a twist in the tale. The delivery prior to the no-ball wasn’t a legitimate one as Starc had overstepped by the huge margin. It meant that the ball of dismissal was technically a free-hit and Gayle wasn’t so lucky and he had to perish after scoring 21 off 17 with four boundaries.