Photo by BS News Agency.
Umpires to be punished too! Controversy over “report”.
Sanchta Chatterjee, Kolkata. Four cricketers are going to be punished due to the chaos in the CAB First Division final match. It has also been decided to punish the umpires involved in that match. According to the news received at the end of Monday’s Apex Committee meeting, the two on-field umpires, the third, fourth umpires and the match observer – these 5 people will not be able to play the semi-finals and final matches of any CAB tournament for the next one year. Although there has been no official announcement from the CAB.
Monday’s meeting was abuzz with the umpires and observers’ reports. The report mentioned that the umpires had decided to play the wasted time of the fourth day. Incidentally, the scheduled time to end the match of each day and night was 8 pm. The umpires wanted to play 30 more minutes to waste time as per the rules. But on the orders of the “higher authorities”, the extra 30 minutes of that day could not be played.
Now the question is who is this "higher authority"? According to sources, one of the umpires present at Monday's meeting named Umpires Committee Chairman Prosenjit Banerjee. When Inside Sports contacted Prosenjit Babu in this regard, when asked, Prosenjit Babu said, "I was not at the meeting. I am not a "higher authority".
If someone has mentioned my name, it is a baseless allegation, unrealistic. The responsibility and accountability of the match will have to be taken by the umpires concerned." This Inside Sports reporter spoke to more than one umpire. They again conveyed the message of standing by Umpires Committee Chairman Prosenjit Banerjee.
Several questions are also being raised within the CAB regarding the role of umpires.
1) Some say that the laws of cricket have been killed in an attempt to save cricket. In a match, no team sat in the dressing room for 5 hours without playing. According to the rules, why did the umpires wait for so long? Why wasn't the bell raised and the match declared over long ago?
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2) Like Abhijit Bhattacharya, the BCCI umpire who played IPL and Ranji matches was the on-field umpire in the East Bengal-Bhavanipur match. How did he make such a terrible mistake?
3) Who is the real "higher authority"? The office bearers? Or the tournament committee?
4) Sourav Ganguly took the initiative to start the match. That day (the second day of the match), when the Bhavanipur boss Samrat Sourav was informed about the matter, Sourav went to the East Bengal camp and spoke. The journalists present saw it that day. The question is, why would he mediate? Sourav does not hold any position in the CAB at the moment.
5) Was it because of Sourav that the umpires could not ignore his advice? Or was there some other reason? It is clear that the umpires could not take the pressure of that match. As a result, the umpires made one mistake after another. No matter how much Sourav mediates, the Apex Committee has to take a decision against the umpires to resolve the dispute.
Why did umpire Abhijit Bhattacharya suddenly leave the umpires' WhatsApp group last Sunday? Later, however, he was added back to the group. So, has the "us-them" started among the umpires of Bengal as well? Or are the umpires also fed up with the pressure of the "higher authorities"? Many questions arise.