Cricket Icon Voices Frustration Over Umpiring in 1st Test

Legendary West Indian batsman and Jamaican cricket icon Lawrence Rowe has voiced his frustration over questionable umpiring decisions that he believes negatively impacted the West Indies in the first Test against Australia in Barbados.

Rowe pointed to South African third umpire Adrian Holdstock’s controversial calls as a major turning point in the match.

Despite the assistance of replay technology, at least three decisions went against the home side, leaving the West Indies camp deeply aggrieved.

Rowe highlighted the dismissals of batsmen Shai Hope and captain Roston Chase as particularly damaging, saying he scarcely believe they were out.

The batting stylist said it was even more damaging to the West Indies chances because both batsmen were batting well, both on 40-odd, and looking set.

The former batting great who was speaking on 195 fm in Trinidad this weekend, argued that chasing a target of 170-180 to win the Test would have been far more manageable than the daunting 300 set by Australia.

Lawrence Rowe

West Indies head coach Daren Sammy has been fined 15 percent of his match fee for openly criticising a match official in the recently concluded opening Test match against Australia at Kensington Oval.

Sammy was deemed to have breached Level 1 of the ICC’s Code of Conduct during the second day of the match, which Australia went on to win by 159 runs on Friday.

The sanction relates to comments made by Sammy during a media interaction at the end of day two, where he criticised one of the match officials in reference to multiple incidents throughout the day’s play.

Sammy was found to have violated Article 2.7 of the code, which pertains to “public criticism of, or inappropriate comment in relation to an incident occurring in an international match or any player, player support personnel, match official or team participating in any international match”.

As a result, one demerit point has also been added to his disciplinary record, his first offence in a 24-month period.

Sammy admitted the offence and accepted the sanction proposed by Javagal Srinath of the ICC Elite Panel of Match Referees, after the charge was levelled by on-field umpires Richard Kettleborough and Nitin Menon, third umpire Adrian Holdstock, and fourth umpire Gregory Brathwaite.

Level 1 offences carry a minimum penalty of an official reprimand and a maximum of a 50 per cent match fee fine, along with one or two demerit points.