Umpire's decision reversible?
S. Reza Shosme Dhaka University
Can anyone imagine an umpire making his decision following the 'orders' (well the body language speaks it all!) of one of the playing captains on the field? No way! Right? But we had to observe a far more ridiculous and as unacceptable occurrence on the first day of the 2nd Test between Bangladesh and Australia. Yes, I am talking about the dismissal of Rajin Saleh. It's not the decision of giving him out. But "HOW" the umpire made his judgment came to me as an astonishment! The credible (?) umpire passed the decision of 'not out' taking a long time to come to the decision. Then the drama started, the fielding captain, who happened to be the captain of the best cricket team of the world, was not happy about it. He put pressure on the umpire to reconsider his decision! Wasn't it a behaviour that falls in the category of breaking the code of conduct? That was not all, what's most surprising is the action of the umpire that he re-evaluated his verdict and changed it to 'out' after giving 'not out'! It's a quite common phenomenon that after a decision is made in the field by the umpire, it is proved to be wrong after technical analysis! But no one is allowed to raise a question on the creditability of the judgment of the umpire, let alone changing the decision otherwise! Isn't the decision of the umpire in the field, irrespective of technically sound or not, the final verdict? I want to know why the action of the umpire i.e. changing the decision being forcibly influenced by a player in the field should not be counted as a "breaking of umpiring code of conduct ". Since the demanding captain represents the best team of the world and the other team happens to be the last one on the list, the umpire went for re-evaluating the judgment of Ricky Ponting! I am no cricketing expert, just a passionate fan of the game, so I would like to have an explanation from the proficient cricketing experts and the authorities concerned about the incident that has not been seen in cricket before. I) Does a player in the field have the right to veto the passed judgment of the umpire and force him to re-evaluate and change it? If the answer is yes, then there's a long list of dismissals that were questioned. Why they were not re- evaluated after analysing the TV replay? II) Can an umpire, the final judge on the ground, change the decision that he has already passed officially? III) Is their any special rule to favour the officially declared 'best team of the world'? IV) Was it legitimate according to cricketing rules and regulations?
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