Umpiring ruckus clouds lively game

By Ted Corbett

KANDY, MARCH 9. It was the best of days; it was the worst of days.

England built a lead of 90, and then tore the second Test from Sri Lanka with a fine burst of new ball pace. The rest of the third day was a new shambles of bad umpiring from the local man B.C. Cooray, made worse by a newspaper headline ``Cooray bats for England,'' shouts of ``Cooray is a cheat'' from the crowd and abuse from the players of his national side.

There are two views of this demonstration of Z-grade umpiring. The old-fashioned view is that the players have created this monster by their constant appealing, their refusal to walk and their disinclination to give any umpire the sort of help that made county cricket a by-word for honesty.

The modern thinking is that we must go for more technology, make greater use of the third umpire and even consider abolish their role altogether. I go with the 21st century opinion but before there are major changes in umpiring there will be a prolonged debate. Let it begin now.

Before lunch Alec Stewart and Craig White attacked with care until White was stumped going after Jayasuriya's first ball at 373. Stewart had already been allowed to carry on batting by Cooray when there was a clear catch at short leg. Soon after lunch he was given out even though the television pictures showed the ball had touched the ground as Jayawardene caught it.

Ashley Giles and Andrew Caddick gave Muttiah Muralitharan his third and fourth wickets, both bowled playing a big shot, but for the next hour Robert Croft and Darren Gough added 41 runs that must have irritated Sri Lanka until Chaminda Vaas had Gough plainly lbw.

A lead of 90 was more than Sri Lanka could shrug off and when Marvan Atapattu was caught behind the wicket in the first Gough over it was a bad blow to their hopes of winning. With only half the time consumed a draw was out of the question and in the next two overs, when two more batsmen were out, an England victory looked certain. But once again there was a storm of protest at the decisions.

Jayasuriya stretched out for Caddick's opening delivery and sent the ball screaming into the slips where Graham Thorpe leapt sideways to take an astounding left-handed catch. Cooray moved across to square leg to ask Rudi Koertzen, the South African if the ball had been taken cleanly and received a nod. Jayasuriya went slowly but when he heard the crowd calling that he had hit the ball hard into the ground he slowed and when he reached the pavilion threw his helmet into the wall. Mike Atherton and Kumar Sangakkara, the other batsman, both addressed heated words to umpire Koertzen. The game cannot afford any more such nightmarish scenes.

In Gough's second over Aravinda de Silva aimed a hook at a rising ball and was ruled - by Koertzen - to have touched it with his glove. So three wickets were down for three runs in 14 balls and the game inevitably set for an England victory.

White bowled Jayawardene with his off break in the tenth over, Sangakkara and Russel Arnold put on 39 before Croft trapped Arnold lbw, Tillekaratne Dilshan was caught at slip for nought and with just two overs to bowl Sri Lanka went into the lead. The game cannot last long tomorrow when Sri Lanka restart eight ahead and only four wickets standing.

This infamous match will not be remembered for the batsmanship, which has been courageous and inspired, nor the bowling in which Murali's marathon performance has been wonderful, nor the catching of White, nor Thorpe.

Cricket has been sullied by the controversy surrounding ten or more decisions wrongly given by both umpires which have produced a bitterness closely resembling that in the 1992 series between England and Pakistan when ball tampering caused chaos.

There have also been allegations that Jayasuriya made a racist remark but the Sri Lanka board explained tonight that there had been an error in translation.

These two Tests have produced the umpire's equivalent of the Bodyline series which forced major changes in the laws and the series may have ruined the careers of officials from the world list. ICC must send a delegation to watch the last match so that they can judge how desperately the game needs a wash and brush- up.

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