Kanpur farce: The umpires hit back

New Delhi, Nov 22 (PTI) Under fire for the way they
conducted the Kanpur One Day International (ODI), which had to
be decided by the Duckworth/Lewis method, the umpires have hit
back, saying they are "amazed at the lack of knowledge of
their critics".

The Kanpur ODI started late and ended early amid fading
light with India winning by 16 runs under the Duckworth/Lewis
method.

Umpires Russell Tiffin and Ameish Sahiba were blamed for
the farcical end by a fuming British media, which said the
officials' decision to shorten the match by just one over a
side after a 45-minute delay lacked common sense.

Stung by the criticism, the umpires said they were only
trying to ensure as many overs as possible in the match and
they deserved applause for that.

"We lost just one over inspite of it being a 45-minute
delay. That's big achievement," one of the umpires was quoted
as saying by 'cricketnirvana.com'.

"Look we lost 45 minutes, but we made it all up. First we
cut the lunch break from 45 to 30 minutes, then got another 15
minutes from the extra time allotted to both sides. We would
have lost two overs if we went by this calculation.

"In that case the game would have got over by 4.58
instead of a closure at 5 pm. With our calculations, at least
we were ensuring that the game would go on till 5.07 pm. We
had to ensure both sides get the same number of overs and we
succeeded to some extent," added the official.

The umpire said he did not see anything farcical in the
way the match was conducted and it could have been a full game
but for a few unwarranted delays.

"The sun came out very briefly and was gone again in a
matter of minutes. We cannot toss in advance and say let's
start when it gets better. It does not work that way. The
pitch becomes the property of the umpires only when the
conditions are deemed fit by them. It really took time for the
weather to become clearer," revealed the official.

The official also rubbished suggestions that the lunch
break should have been shortened to ensure a full game, saying
the International Cricket Council (ICC) rules have specified a
certain amount of time for lunch and that cannot be violated.

"But you saw the teams did not even have that much of a
break because India's over-rate was slow," said the official.

Suggestions that floodlights could have been turned on in
the afternoon were also rejected by the umpire, who said the
officials could not have risked using an untested facility
which has been primarily installed for football games.

"There is no point talking about the lights. Anyways the
lights at Kanpur have not been used for any game. What if we
used it and it did not work. They are anyways lights to be
used for football games," the match official reasoned.

The umpire was, however, sympathetic towards England
skipper Kevin Pietersen and lauded him for trying all he could
to ensure a full match.

"Maybe in the time they spent looking at the sheets we
could have had two-three more overs. After all Kevin Pietersen
was using his spinners. The light was good to face the
spinners.

"To his credit Pietersen tried everything to come up with
a result. At the stage he could have very well used a fast
bowler, but he wanted a fair game so decided to switch to a
spinner," he explained.