What would you have done in this game?
I found myself in a dilemma this weekend on the cricket pitch. I'm interested in know what you would have done in these circumstances.
I was playing for my club 2nd XI in a league match of no importance. There are no appointed umpires at that level but the opposition had their own 'home' umpire. Unfortunately it seems he was deliberately trying to give his own team the advantage.
We fielded first and several appeals were turned down. Nothing too controversial yet however, you sort of expect LBW shouts and faint nicks to not go your way. However we bowled well and restricted them to just 144.
The real trouble started when we batted. The opening bowler was bowling several deliveries an over with his foot well over the crease line. The home umpire initially ignored it until one of our opening bats pointed it out. He then gave about 1 in 3 no balls for the rest of the bowlers 15 over spell.
Then 3 of our top 5 were given out LBW just as the game was heading away from our opponents. We were even predicting which ones he would give: “He won't give the next appeal out but he will the one after that†one canny observer noticed. He was dead on.
It was these circumstances that I found myself as stand in square leg umpire at the other end. One of our players, on 20, walked down the track, missed it and the keeper whipped off the bails as the batter scrambled back into his ground.
I considered it and said "not out".
They were convinced it was out by a mile. Amid swearing and accusations of cheating from the fielders I stood my ground. So did our batsman who went on to score 46 and see the team home with plenty of time to spare.
On balance, that not out decision “cost†the opposition around 25 runs. I reckon that's the number of runs we lost in no balls. That's not even accounting for the extra runs scored from the extra ball or scored by our batsmen who were given out.
What would you have done?
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Exactly the same. I would also have declared "no-ball" to a couple of deliveries knee high.
Well he did no ball our spinner for a waist high full toss so maybe I should have!
While I understand the situation I have to say that if you truly belived the batman to be in or had the requisite doubt etc. then there's no problem.
If what you are saying is you made a deliberate decision to attempt to redress the 'balance' then you were way out of order.
There's no way you can counter the opposition umipres' bias other than just to beat them anyway, fair and square.
As it is your 'win' will always be a question of was our biased umpiring better/worse then theirs?
Good point well made. Do two wrongs make a right? Does one bad decision cancel out another? As it happened there was nothing on the game anyway so consequences are not much of a factor.
I think what you did by giving the stumping not out was wrong.
This happens alot in club cricket with umpires favouring sides, but I think it's an issue you should have taken up with the umpire himself instead of being bias to your team at the other end to "even out" the bad decisions for your team as then you are in the wrong aswell...
From personal experience, I remember a game last year when the umpire was a "home" umpire and was not giving us any LBW shouts, THICK edges to the keeper and just generally being such an arse. For example I brought on a new bowler and he gave his first 4 deliveries as no-balls when his foot was behind and not even touching the front foot line! We enquired as to why he had done so and he replied, "he hasn't told me his bowling action (ie right arm over)!!. I don;t know if that actualy is a rule or not, but quite simply, what the fuck....
I as captain had words with him which turned into quite harsh words as the bastard didn't seem to care. I then spoke to the oppo captain and we agreed to get a replacement umpire out... which I think maybe you should have done.
Interesting experience. We often see home umpires giving the benefit to their own team. I have never seen it quite as bad as that though.
Oh and I never said I thought the stumping was out
All's fair in battle. Its happens quite frequently in all club games as most teams play by a win by any cost motive
I'm not sure about all being 'fair'. All might be 'even' but that's a different story. Interesting to see two quite opposed views forming though.
I happens in Club level matches.So we two different solutions for that:
Firstly; the standard way is to mutually agree of having our own umpires for our team.
Secondly; to have umpires from different club at a fee.
But still most of the time it happens;so the mutual understandin between both captains has been curcial for us.
Virender
I agree about mutual trust. That's how it works at the lower levels with no paid neutral umpires.
The expectation is that the stand-in umpires will try to be fair as much as possible (it's difficult to remain totally neutral no matter how hard you try). Once that bond of trust has been broken, like with massive no balls, then it could descend into a free-for-all. Nobody wins.
If you're comfortable with your decision then you're fine. You have to live with it. Personally, I would have given it out.
Interesting moral take Jim. I'm assuming if you thought it was out you would have given it not because you thought it was out but because you couldn't live with the guilt of giving it not out?
[...] all have our own stories. I got my own back on a cheat this very season to a mixed response. I’d like to hear your tales [...]
My only concern when a player/umpire is firstly hoping there are NO controversial decisions and critically that I count the number of balls correctly!
I would tentatively suggest you made the wrong decision by in effect cheating. Two wrongs don't make a right and all that.
However, I used to chat alot to our umpire years ago about horse racing and he thought I was great. I knew that if I appealed loudly enough, when bowling, on a close decision he would give the batsman out - basically because he liked me.
Knowing this fact made me a bit of a cheat - though I learned not to over use it.
I'm not sure about the "two wrongs" thing. If you believe in the great universal order then the ying of the no balls had been repaid by the yang of the stumping.
Or is that just moral justification after the event?
I've only just found this site (which from first impressions seems excellent by the way), so sorry for the late reply to this topic, but I thought I'd add my tu'pence worth!
In our Saturday league matches both sides have to provide an umpire to stand throughout the match, so you don't have the problem of player/umpire's, and generally the umpiring standard isn't bad, although last wicket decisions etc in tight matches can sometimes be very dubious!
Sunday games however are often awful! Player/umpires are common, and umpires (some of our own players included) either don't know the laws, choose to bend them slightly or down right cheat!
By the way, Ty, the umpire was wrong! That used to be the law, but it was changed a few years back. It is now the umpires responsibility to ask the bowler's action, not the bowlers responsibility to tell the umpire!
Thanks for the praise Rob. I hope you enjoy your stay.