5 most controversial cricket umpires ever
A sport is never limited to or defined by only the players who play the sport. The commentators, broadcasters and viewers are of immense value to all sports as well. However, one aspect not many talk about is umpiring.
Almost all sports have an umpire or referee whose primary job is to ensure smooth proceedings of the game and make all important decisions as well. With the technology that has come in, their roles may have minimised but they still remain an integral and respectful part of sports especially cricket. However, all umpires haven’t had the best of careers. Here are the top 5 most controversial cricket umpires ever.
5. Steve Bucknor(West Indies):
Steve Bucknor ended his career as one of the most controversial umpires in the history of the game. Bucknor’s first international fixture was an ODI between West Indies and India in 1989. He was given an opportunity to officiate in the 1992 World Cup and stood in the finals too despite being inexperienced. He then went on to stand as an umpire in the World Cups from 1996-2007.
While it can be said he had a fairly distinguished career, he was in the news several times for his erroneous decisions, none as prominent as against India’s Sachin Tendulkar. He was also one of the umpires in the infamous 2007-2008 India Border Gavaskar Test series, wherein the 2nd Test in Sydney, as many as 7 controversial and incorrect umpiring decisions were made, all against India. He was also among the group of umpires who took the decision to let play continue in darkness in the 2007 World Cup finals.
4. Darrell Hair (Australia):
Darrell Hair started his career in 1992 and officiated in 78 Test matches and 139 ODIs, until 2008 when he resigned. The first major controversy regarding Hair was in 1995 when in a match between Sri Lanka and Australia, he no-balled Muttiah Muralitharan 7 times in 3 overs for allegedly chucking the ball. Arjuna Ranatunga, the Sri Lankan captain wasn’t impressed with the accusation and marched off the ground with his teammates only to return a while later. In 1999 Hair was also found guilty by the ICC for describing Muralitharan’s action as diabolical.
The second incident occurred in 2006 when on the fourth day of a test match between Pakistan and England, Hair and his fellow umpire Billy Doctrove accused Pakistan of ball-tampering. Subsequently, they awarded England 5 penalty runs and offered to replace the existing ball. This infuriated the Pakistani skipper Inzamam-ul-Haq and the team refused to take the field after the tea break. After 30 minutes, the umpires dislodged the bails, controversially awarding the match to England, with the event of winning a match through forfeiture being the first-ever in the game.
3. Asad Rauf (Pakistan):
Asad Rauf, an umpire who was one of the most well-known and top-notch umpires had an abrupt and controversial end to his career in 2016. The end wasn’t because of on-field but off-field misdeeds. Rauf stood as an umpire for the first time in an ODI in 2000 and then was promoted to the ICC Elite Umpire Panel in 2004. He continued to do a commendable job year after year usually being spot on with his decisions. He ended up standing in 49 tests, 98 ODIs and 23 T20Is.
His first brush with controversy came early in 2013 when a Delhi based model accused Rauf of sexual harassment. She dropped these charges later but it had certainly damaged Rauf’s reputation somewhat. Rauf’s life turned upside down in reality when in the same year his name was brought up in relation to illegal betting, cheating and fraud in the then-ongoing IPL spot-fixing scandal. While he refused the allegations initially, he was found guilty in 2016 and banned for 5 years.
2. Kumar Dharmasena(Sri Lanka):
One of the youngest umpires going around, Kumar has had a spotless career as far as off-field controversies are concerned. Even his record as an umpire for a majority of his career was pretty good. Dharmasena started his umpiring career in 2009 standing for a match between Sri Lanka and India. His rapid progress saw him being named as the Umpire of the Year at the 2012 ICC Awards. He umpired in the 2011 World Cup, 2015 World Cup and 2016 T20 World Cup finals
Despite his good record, Dharamsena has had his challenges with the DRS. Infamously in a Test between Bangladesh and England in 2016, 8 of the 16 decisions made by Dharamsena were overturned, most for any umpire. In 2019, he had the major World Cup controversy. In an intense final which eventually went down to a super over, Dharamsena made a massive blunder. In the normal game with 9 needed of 4, the ball deflected off a diving Ben Stokes’ bat and went to the boundary. Dharmasena signalled 6 runs while according to the rules it should have been 5.
This blunder not only gave England the extra run but it also meant Ben Stokes’ would retain strike. Rest as they say is history. He was severely criticised for this blunder but Dharmasena stood his ground and made it pretty clear that he didn’t regret his decision.
1. Mark Benson (England):
Steve Bucknor’s partner in crime in the infamous India-Australia Test, Benson had a relatively short-lived career as an umpire. He stood in 27 Tests and 72 ODIs. Benson showed a lot of promise from his debut year in 2004 as an umpire and was even nominated for the Umpire of the year award in 2007. However, it all came crashing down because of that one disgraceful match.
While there were a number of rubbish calls made that game, the most striking one is where Benson asked Australian captain, Ricky Ponting, whether he had caught a ball that looked to be touching the ground. Ponting without hesitation said he did and Benson didn’t bother to use his discretion to check it. As it turned out, it wasn’t a clean catch after all. Benson was very apprehensive about the DRS and his decisions being overturned. Hence in 2009, he decided it was better for him to call it a day as an international umpire.
