Lyndon Hannibal failure to call no-ball in the third T20I in Dambulla.
2024.02.23
Wanindu Hasaranga criticized umpire Lyndon Hannibal for his failure to call no-ball in the third T20I in Dambulla.
Wanindu Hasaranga, the recently appointed captain of Sri Lanka’s Twenty20 international team, expressed his dissatisfaction and disappointment after umpire Lyndon Hannibal’s contentious non-no-ball call during Wednesday’s third Twenty20 international match against Afghanistan at the Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium in Dambulla (February 21).
Even though Sri Lanka had already won the Twenty20 International Series, they still had a difficult chase ahead of them—210 runs to win. With two fours in the first three deliveries, Kamindu Mendis seemed to be making it to victory as Sri Lanka needed just 19 runs off the last over. The pivotal moment, though, came on the fourth delivery when Hannibal, who was positioned at square leg, judged Wafadar Momand’s high full toss over Mendis’ waist height to be permissible.
Mendis requested a review, but the most recent ICC playing standards prevented him from getting one since they only allowed reviews for possible dismissals. Mendis was outside his crease, but the way he was crouching indicated that if the ball had been played from the crease, it would still have cleared his waist. After the next delivery was ruled wide, Sri Lanka needed to score 10 runs in the final two balls. However, Sri Lanka fell three runs short at 206/6, although a dot on the penultimate delivery and a six off the last ball narrowed the margin of loss.
Visibly offended by Hannibal’s ruling, Hasaranga denounced the umpiring blunder and emphasized that mistakes of this nature shouldn’t occur at the international level. Hasaranga also voiced his displeasure with the review procedure, arguing that the third umpire ought to have the authority to examine all no-balls, not just front-foot ones.
“That kind of thing shouldn’t happen in an international match. If it had been close [to waist height], that’s not a problem. But a ball that’s going so high… it would have hit the batsman’s head if it had gone a little higher. If you can’t see that, that umpire isn’t suited to international cricket. It would be much better if he did another job,” Hasaranga said.
“There was a situation where you could review those calls before, but the ICC has got rid of that. Our batsmen tried to review that. If the third umpire is able to check the front-foot no-ball, he should check this kind of no-ball as well. There’s no reason why they can’t. They didn’t do even that, so I’m not sure what was going on in his (the square-leg umpire’s) mind at the time,” the 26-year-old concluded.
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