With all the odds stacked against the Windies in England, the last thing we needed was an umpire with a perceived bias against us. You may recall an earlier letter in which I complained about South African umpire Marcus Erasmus who, on several occasions in the recent series against Australia, gave decisions against us (gave us out when we were not out and the Australians not out when they were out). He did this while officiating as TV umpire and as on-field umpire. You could imagine my horror to see him pop up in the just-ended Test match against England. I mean, does the ICC make it man-datory that he goes wherever we go? And as if to confirm my worst fears, he springs into action right away. Even as we struggled to cope with the English bowlers and favourable bowling conditions, he gives our premier batsman, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, out LBW. Fortunately for us, Shiv decided to review it. The review showed the ball clearly missing the off stump by a long way.
(Stop the press. No, no, no, I can't believe it! Even as I write this, and following the cricket on Cricinfo, Erasmus has just given centurion and England captain Andrew Strauss not out on an appeal for caught behind. The West Indies decides to review and, what do you know, Strauss is out-another strike against Erasmus.) When England batted, Jonathan Trott was out three times. He was 17 and the score was 82 for 1 when he was given not out on an LBW appeal. The West Indies reviewed it and even though the commentators and I agreed he should be given out, the TV umpire upheld the on-field decision. (So it's not only Erasmus, but he's the worst since Daryl Harper retired.) To add insult to injury, we lost a review when we shouldn't have. Another failing of the DRS, but I really don't want to start on that again.Two overs later, with Trott still on 17, he should have been given out caught behind but the umpire said not out. Having just lost a review (unfairly), the West Indies was loathe to review so Trott remained.
Had they reviewed, he would have been given out, both Hot Spot and Snicko confirming he had hit the ball. DRS fails again-we should not have had to review. The on-field umpire should have asked the TV umpire for help, the way they do with run outs and boundary calls. It was not until 112 runs later, with the score on 194, that on the third attempt Trott was finally given out. (Reminds me of the 1973 World Cup match against Haiti where T&T scored four legitimate goals but lost 2-1 and barely failed to make it to the 1974 finals in Germany.) How different things might have been had Trott been given out the first time. How can a young team be expected to surmount such odds? The West Indies Cricket Board should chronicle the wrong decisions made by Erasmus against us and present a case to the ICC. It would be very easy to make a case of statistical bias and we should request that he not officiate in any game involving the West Indies. But I suspect that is asking too much of the WICB? So we'll continue to suffer at the hands of an umpire who seems to take a particular delight in making life as difficult as possible for our struggling team.
Noel Kalicharan
Via e-mail
