Brathwaite “frustrated” with officiating during Windies defeat

Chris Gayle (right) stands alongside partner Shai Hope after challenging his lbw decision by DRS during Thursday’s match against Australia at Trent Bridge.
Chris Gayle (right) stands alongside partner Shai Hope after challenging his lbw decision by DRS during Thursday’s match against Australia at Trent Bridge.

NOTTINGHAM, England, CMC – West Indies all-rounder Carlos Brathwaite has criticised the poor standard of umpiring that marred Thursday’s 15-run World Cup defeat to Australia at Trent Bridge.

The 2016 Twenty20 World Cup final hero described the officiating as “a bit frustrating” and said some of the decisions had been “dodgy”.

The Caribbean side were forced to resort to DRS on four occasions to overturn umpiring errors, and TV replays also showed that New Zealand official Chris Gaffaney missed a huge Mitchell Starc no ball the delivery prior to Chris Gayle’s dismissal.

Had the no ball been spotted, Gayle would have benefited from a free hit. Instead, he was trapped lbw, with reviews revealing a marginal decision with the ball clipping leg stump.

“I don’t know if I’ll be fined for saying it but I just think that the umpiring was a bit frustrating. Even when we were bowling, we thought a few balls close to head height were called wides,” he complained.

“And obviously three decisions … as far as I can remember being dodgy, it was frustrating and sent ripples through the dressing room. To lose Chris in a chase of 280, who can probably get 180 of them himself obviously, broke the start that we wanted to have.

“But the umpires do their job. They try to do it to the best of their ability, we as players go out there to do our job as well.”

Gayle was the first beneficiary of two successive howlers from Gaffaney in the third over of the West Indies run chase from Starc. The veteran left-hander was first adjudged caught behind and then given out lbw off the next legitimate delivery, decisions that were overturned by DRS.

Captain Jason Holder also suffered the same fate at the hands of Sri Lankan umpire Ruchira Palliyaguruge when he was twice given out lbw – first in the 30th over and then by 36th over – before DRS once again came to the rescue.

Brathwaite said both the umpiring and West Indies’ luck with the technology at times had left him mystified.

“I just think that for West Indies, we don’t have to use all our reviews and that some of the other teams get a chance to use theirs because every time we get hit on our pad, the finger goes up. When we hit the opposition on their pad, the finger stays down,” he contended.

“So we have to use our reviews and it’s always missing and then we have to use our reviews when we’re batting as well and it’s always clipping. I’m not a technology person, I don’t know why that happens. I can just say what I have seen happen over the past few years.”

Holder said West Indies had been “unlucky” with the officiating but opted to steer clear of the controversial issue.

“I think I’ll just say I just found ourselves a bit unlucky to be on the other end of all the decisions. I guess honest mistakes from the umpires,” he said afterwards.

“I don’t want to get into the officiating part, but it’s just ironic. I don’t even know what to say about it but it is a funny situation where all of them went against us, and then we had to review them, but I guess that’s part of the game again.”

West Indies came up short in their pursuit of 289 for victory, ending on 273 for nine off their 50 overs.