Daren Sammy fined for criticising third umpire over decisions during WI vs AUS 1st Test
Daren Sammy was angry about two particular decisions that went against the West Indies during their first Test match against Australia in Barbados. Sammy criticised the third umpire, Adrian Holdstock, for some of his calls.
West Indies coach Daren Sammy has been fined 15% of his match fee for criticising the third umpire Adrian Holdstock for the dismissal decisions during the West Indies vs Australia 1st Test at Kensington Oval, Bridgetown, Barbados.
Sammy had called the umpiring decisions that went against his team after the end of the second day's play, saying that he had concerns about Holdstock's umpiring from the recent ODI series in England.
"You don't want to get yourself in a situation where you're wondering about certain umpires," he said. "Is there something against this team? But when you see decision after decision, then it raises the question."
His anger came on two particular decisions that went against the Windies. An incident that caught the eyeballs was West Indies' skipper Roston Chase's LBW dismissal in the first innings. Aussie skipper Pat Cummins had Chase in trouble in the 50th over. His back of a length ball stayed a bit low as Chase looked to defend and was hit on the pads. The Windies skipper was given out, and he immediately reviewed.
Once the Ultraedge loaded in, there was a spike when the ball was next to the bat before hitting the pads; however, the third umpire decided that there was no bat involved as there seemed a gap between bat and ball to him. He decided there was no bat, and Chase was given out LBW.
Another one occurred during the West Indies' first innings when Beau Webster had nicked off Shai Hope on the inside edge. The ball flew to the left of the wicketkeeper Alex Carey, who dived to take a one-handed catch. He completed the catch, but upon diving, some part of the ball seemingly made contact with the ground despite being in the glove. However, Hope was given out.
Sammy was found guilty to have violating Article 2.7 of the ICC's code of conduct, which pertains to "public criticism of, or inappropriate comment in relation to an incident occurring in an international match or any player, player support personnel, match official or team participating in any international match".
The coach was handed a fine of 15% of his match fee for the level-one offence. Moreover, he was also handed one demerit point for his first offence in a 24-month period.
Sammy admitted the offence and accepted the sanction proposed by match referee Javagal Srinath. Notably, the Level 1 offences carry a minimum penalty of an official reprimand and a maximum of a 50% match fee fine, along with one or two demerit points.