Shakib Al Hasan was vocal about his displeasure with the poor umpiring in Bangladesh’s recently concluded first Test against South Africa. South Africa’s Marais Erasmus and Adrian Holdstock were the on-field umpires in the match where several 50-50 decisions went against Bangladesh.
On Day 4, after another wrong decision against Bangladesh from Erasmus, Shakib sent out a tweet, calling on the ICC (International Cricket Council) to reinstate the rule of using neutral umpires in Test matches.
Bangladesh team director Khaled Mahmud, skipper Mominul Haque and Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) cricket operations chairman Jalal Yunus also echoed Shakib’s statement later on.
But leading cricket-based website Cricbuzz’s South African correspondent Telford Vice in an article posted on the site batted for the South African on-field umpires and said that Shakib should issue an apology to the umpires for questioning their neutrality in the match.
“Shakib should have known better: the number of overturned decisions in the match is evenly split at 4-4 in respect of which team they have favoured. Thus Erasmus and Holdstock are owed an apology by Shakib,” he wrote in an article posted on Cricbuzz on Sunday.
Telford also hinted at Shakib’s past altercations with umpires both in domestic and international matches and said, “Given his troubled, sometimes downright awful history with umpires, they should not expect it to arrive anytime soon.”
Bangladesh lost the Test at the Kingsmead Stadium in Durban by 220 runs after getting bundled out for just 53 in their second innings.
The second and final Test will take place at the St George’s Park in Port Elizabeth on 8 April.