The Bangladesh Cricket Board is set to lodge a formal complaint to the ICC about South Africa’s “deplorable” sledging during the Durban Test.
According to the Bangladeshi players, the South African umpires ignored their on-field grievances, allegedly showing a bias towards the home team.
Bangladesh has already filed one complaint concerning the umpiring through its tour of South Africa, but want the separate issue addressed that surfaced during the side’s 220-run loss at Durban.
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Speaking after the match, Bangladeshi captain Mominul Haque said the umpires failed to manage the sledges from the opposition.
“Sledging is quite normal, but the umpires didn’t seem to notice it,” he said.
“The umpiring in the match is not in our control, but I think the ICC should think about bringing back neutral umpires.”
Bangladesh’s discontent with the match officials was exacerbated by multiple umpiring errors. In the field, they made several successful lbw appeals during South Africa’s second innings on Sunday.
The tourists opted for a review when opening batter Dean Elgar was given not out by field umpire Marais Erasmus in the fifth over after being hit on his back leg. But the South African captain survived on umpire’s call as ball-tracking showed that the ball was only clipping off stump.
Then, in the 19th over of the innings, Bangladesh successfully overturned Adrian Holdstock’s not-out decision for an lbw against Sarel Erwee.
According to ESPNcricinfo’s ball-by-ball commentary, the delivery “looked so out to the naked eye it was a surprise that the on-field call was not given despite a screeching appeal”.
In the 26th over, medium bowler Khaled Ahmed was denied an lbw decision against Keegan Petersen. Bangladesh didn’t take that review but replays showed that it would have hit the stumps and been called out had they taken the delivery upstairs.
BCB cricket operations chief Jalal Yunus was also concerned with how the umpires treated the Bangladeshi players when they appropriately complained about the sledging.
“We have already lodged one complaint about the umpiring after the ODI series. We will lodge another official complaint about this Test match,” he told ESPNcricinfo.
“They surrounded [Mahmudul Hasan] Joy when he went out to bat. They were saying something. He couldn’t say anything back since he is a junior player. It was deplorable. Instead of controlling the situation, the umpires warned our players whenever we made complaints against the sledging.
“Sledging definitely took place from both sides, but when they started it and took it overboard, we complained to the umpires. It wasn’t acceptable. We properly condemn it. We have to accept the umpires’ decisions, but the ICC must reinstate neutral umpires.”
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