Mike Gatting criticizes Ponting for questioning the umpires
Former Captain of the England team, Mike Gatting said that the Australian skipper Ricky Ponting should not have criticized the umpires and angrily confronted them during the fourth Ashes Test in MCG today. Gatting went on to add that as the captain of Australian
side he should not have questioned the Pakistani umpire Aleem Dar or berated him after the verdict of DRS confirmed that the umpire was right. Gatting went on to say that with the advent of technology, the captains must accept the decision for there is little
chance of technology going wrong.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 had a review and challenged the initial decision of Aleem Dar which was in favour of the English batsman Kevin Pietersen. The UDRS technology could not detect an edge and replays showed that the batsman might have clipped his pad. Therefore, the
third umpire http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Marais-Erasmus-c74368 signalled Dar to uphold his initial decision. When Dar went ahead and upheld his decision, Ricky Ponting marched to the umpires to argue their decision debating on the issue with on-field umpire Tony Hill and Dar.
Pietersen was batting at 49 at the time and soon got out for 51. Gatting himself once got involved in a similar argument with umpire http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755; however he said that there should absolutely be no excuse for any similar
conduct in a time when neutral umpires are backed by Television technology.
"This is what the DRS system was supposed to negate. You question umpires by referring (a decision) but you really shouldn't question umpires (further). I probably shouldn't have done what I did (argued with Rana) but as I've said that was probably more
of a personal insult to me than anything else. There is technology now and everyone is agreed that it's a good thing for cricket," the former English Captain said.
Mike Gatting captained the England side, bringing home the Ashes trophy 86/87.
He said that questioning the umpire once might be forgiven, but arguing when technology had confirmed the umpire’s decision was outrageous.
"We can't have that...The system has taken a lot of antagonism out of the game and we've got to the stage where it's working quite well, and it is sad when somebody has to question a decision after it has been referred,” he stated.
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