Did Dar spoil his chance to officiate final?

Birmingham: Did Pakistan umpire Aleem Dar spoil his chance to officiate in the Champions Trophy final? A three-time winner of the International Cricket Council (ICC) award of the most outstanding umpire should have been among the on-field umpires for the final, but the buzz is the controversy over him changing the ball midway through the Sri Lankan innings against England in the Champions Trophy group match may have gone against him.

The talk around here is that his action had angered the hosts England team, who were defeated in that match. With two new balls being used from both ends, the condition of the ball is not supposed to deteriorate but Dar changed the ball — stating it had gone out of shape.

Dar is only the fourth umpire for the final with Bruce Oxenford of Australia being the third umpire and Sri Lanka’s Kumar Dharmasena and Australia’s Rod Tucker officiating as on-field umpires. A newspaper here even ridiculed Dar, saying that he has been relegated to a job in the final to check whether the batteries are working right in light meters.

Following the change of the ball, England skipper Alastair Cook had expressed his anger after Sri Lanka raced to victory. It also fuelled a debate as to whether England was generating reverse swing due to ball tampering.

After losing the match to Sri Lanka, Cook even commented: “The umpires make those decisions, and so you have to accept them. Sometimes you don’t think they’re the right decisions, but there’s not much you can do about it.”

The whole issue snowballed into a bigger controversy when former England captain Bob Willis commented that English bowlers may have tampered with the ball. In fact, South African skipper A B De Villiers even went on to comment: “It’s something that the umpires and the ICC will probably look into why England and some of the other teams might get it to reverse quicker.”

Sri Lankan umpire Dharmasena, one of the on field umpires, was a fine allrounder before taking up umpiring and had represented Sri Lanka in the first Champions Trophy in 1998.