DRS shoots trigger-happy Reiffel down
What was dramatic about the Test Match between England vs. Sri Lanka? To me it was the pathetic biased umpiring of Paul Reiffel. Was he the most incompetent of all elitist panel? Absolutely not! He was like a ‘roo shooter’ killing innocent kangaroos for fun. While shooting down the Sri Lankans, he pointed his finger at his torso refusing to raise it even though Mat Prior was plumb and dead as a
Paul Reiffel seems to be smarting from the wound of the 1996 World Cup loss
dodo. A commentator said, “You must shout hoarse in unison to be heard by those officials sitting in Dubai and get the on field umpire to give the decision in the fielding side’s favour, then, even if the Duke kisses the outer edge of the stick, the call prevails”. How to achieve this when a 303 Rifle is officiating? Like Mahela, someone must jump on him, then, another should raise his arm, which suffers from rigormortis when Englishmen are batting. Then, another should raise his finger, then, Steve Davis the 3rd umpire will rule Matt Prior or any other Englishman out. After he ruled out Matt Prior not out, in spite of some Sri Lankans shouting choicest expletives in the Sinhala Language, Paul Reiffel feigned a grin as if he has brushed his teeth with a load of marmite. Much has been said about the 2nd ball, bowled by roly-poly Herath. The much cherished cherry, brand named Duke, has hit the lower part of Prior’s foot a millimetre outside the line. Unless Riffle’s eyes had a 4th vision he would never have seen this except that the Duke was charging to kiss the lower part of middle stick. He, to the joy of the English dressing room, ruled Matt Prior not out. All the commentators, including Nasser Hussein and Michael Holding said that Matt Prior was lucky to be given the 2nd life, like a Cheshire cat.
There is a reason for this show of revenge against the Sri Lankans hiding under the adage of incompetence. Riffle and the other members of the Australian team, including Shane Warne, never forgave the Sri Lankans for having beaten them in the 1996 World Cup. The remorse and the shame was like a bullet embedded in grey matter, too dangerous to remove. Paul Reiffel seems to be smarting from this wound.
The manner in which he officiated was very obvious that he was hell bent on taking revenge from the Sri Lankans as his predecessor, Hair had. Other than the much talked about decisions that had been over-ruled, due to technology, he would have shot every single appeal and made team Sri Lanka fail and loose by an innings. No point in hailing Pradeep as a hero. He had the presence of mind to appeal immediately when he was given out. That was the hardest ball he hit in his short stay. Everybody heard the noise, but not Reiffel! What is more important was that Alastair Cook was not aware who the machete holder, Paul or Billy? Alastair Cook like Herath, upholding the much vaunted spirit of cricket, turned and walked into the pavilion without even looking at the umpire. If the ICC looks at the video footage, it is clear that Paul Reiffel made gestures almost pointing out that Alastair Cook had walked out before he made the decision. He never gave him out though the DRS showed that the sound that emanated from Cook’s bat would have pierced even the ear drums of Reiffel’s grandma.
Much blame has been apportioned to roly-poly Herath, who to me is a source of great enjoyment when we see him running after the Duke. Strangely, the Duke seems to have an effeminate connection with the athletic body of Herath and follows him where ever he goes. This association creates great impression to the young cricketers as to how to run and keep the body trim. But you don’t expect Herath to know whether you are not out when the glove is off the bat when the Duke touched it, but, the moment the English fielders shouted, you saw in extra ultra slow motion, the arm of Reiffel being raised like in a wild western to shoot Herath down. Herath, though he did not know about the laws of the game, had been told about the spirit of the game by no lesser mortal than Cook. He without turning towards Reiffel, but instead, in good spirit, full of gentleman’s cricket, walked to the pavilion. If Herath did not walk he would still be given out by the ‘roo shooter’ and Herath not knowing the law would have not reviewed it as he had felt Duke touching his glove. Whether the glove was on the bat or in the air was not his concern.
The other interesting thing that I noticed was that when Sri Lanka was batting there was a cloud cover and a power failure. Of all the venues in the world, it was rather musing to note that two light towers, on either side of the big screen, were not lit and Michael Holding says it was due to a power cut. The super power of England suddenly blinked out. It was dark and cold. Kumar Sangakkara just gestured that he cannot see, but to no avail. Reiffel however, had nothing to do with such a mundane matter. His task was to shoot the Sri Lankans out of the game. Thereafter, there was a drizzle and all the commentators commented about that drizzle. We have seen that at the slightest drizzle, the umpires run to the stand as it was to prevent them catching birds flue. Reiffel simply refused as he thought that Kumar Sangakkara was made of icy steel and expected either the darkness or the drizzle would melt away his resoluteness. Luckily for Sri Lanka, the rain stopped and a few minutes later the lights came to life!
All those Indian commentators, who had cried high and low about the fault of the DRS system, will have to pay a huge price to Reiffel stands as the umpire stands with his muzzle loader pointing at them.