Did West Indies wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin cheat?

Birmingham: Did the West Indies wicket keeper Denesh Ramdin cheat in the match against Pakistan at Oval on Friday? The International Cricket Council feels so but West Indies players do not.

Ramdin claimed the catch of Pakistan skipper Misbah Ul Haq who bottom edged a chest high delivery off Kemar Roach in the ninth over of the match. The ball carried to Ramdin who appeared to take it cleanly on first attempt but allowed the ball to spell out of his glove onto the grass. He then went and joined his teammates in the celebratory huddle when the square leg umpire felt that they catch may not have been clean. The replays confirmed it and ICC has charged Ramdin with a Level 2 breach of the ICC Code of Conduct whereby he has acted contrary to the spirit of the game.

Ramdin has pleaded not guilty to the offence, and a hearing will take place in London on Monday. The range of penalties for all first Level 2 breaches are the imposition of a fine of between 50-100% of a player’s match fee and/or a suspension of up to two ODI matches.

After the match when Haq was asked about the catch, he said: “I think he (Ramdin) should have told them what happened, but I don’t know what he was thinking at that time. If we don’t know anything, then it’s fine. But if you know clearly that it’s not a catch, you should not claim that because it’s not in the spirit of the game.”

When Roach was asked about the catch he said: “I thought he caught it, and the square umpire thinks differently, so that is an issue for them to deal with.”

West Indies skipper Dwayne Bravo emphatically backed Ramdin after the match. “Denesh (Ramdin) honestly thought he had control of the ball. By rights the umpire had another look and the replay showed he did not. So we don’t play the game like that. History shows we’ve never had anything negative against us unlike other teams,” he said.

Bravo went on to add: “Denesh, as I said, thought he had full control of the ball. There is nothing that he can add control over, and I don’t see anything wrong with it. He claimed the catch, and it’s by right the umpire looked up. Unfortunately, he did not catch it. But as I said, we have been true in our cricket careers and history has shown that we play the game in true spirit of the way it should be played. I don’t think we did something like this deliberately.

Bravo even on to say Ramdin is a honest man. “He is a very honest player, and as I said, history shows if you check the records that we don’t have any stigma or negatives around us as a team.