Officials punished for World Cup final fiasco

By Julian Guyer

CRICKET: LONDON, June 23, 2007 - All five officials involved in the bungled end to the World Cup final will not feature in September's inaugural World Twenty20 tournament in South Africa, the International Cricket Council announced Friday.

Australia's victory against Sri Lanka in the showpiece match in Barbados on April 28 was overshadowed by a farcical climax brought about by a failure to apply a standard playing condition.

Match referee Jeff Crowe, experienced on-field umpires Steve Bucknor and Aleem Dar and two more senior figures in third umpire Rudi Koertzen and reserve official Billy Bowden incorrectly ruled, after a stoppage for bad light, the game had to continue even though the required minimum of 20 overs in the second innings had by then already been bowled.

Australia captain Ricky Ponting, whose side were in a commanding position, and Sri Lanka counterpart Mahela Jayawardene both knew the match had ended.

But the officials insisted Sri Lanka bat out the final three overs of the game in ridiculous conditions because of a baseless fear that, if they didn't, Sunday's reserve day would be required.

Following an investigation by ICC cricket manager David Richardson, the former South Africa wicket-keeper, the global governing body has taken what it said was "proportionate" action against all five officials.

"It would have been easy to let sleeping dogs lie and pretend nothing happened," said ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed in a statement issued from its Dubai headquarters.

"But the reality is that the playing control team (the match referee and the four umpires) made a serious and fundamental error that caused the final of our flagship event to end in disarray and confusion," the Australian added.

"That was not acceptable for such experienced and talented officials and although we do not like to have to take such action, we felt it was necessary to decline to appoint them for our next event, the ICC World Twenty20 in South Africa.

"We feel that to stand them down for this two-week tournament is a proportionate measure."

Former New Zealand captain Crowe said: "While it is never easy to take criticism, I think it is right that there are consequences for our actions as match officials. In this instance I understand that the ICC could not merely let it go.

"We set ourselves high standards as match officials and at the end of that day we did not reach those standards.

It was not a pleasant experience for us but hopefully now we can look forward and learn from it."

Australia won the final by 53 runs under the Duckworth-Lewis method and so became the first side to win three successive World Cups and four in all.

The ICC said it would announce officials for the World Twenty20 in due course.

The tournament, involving the ICC's ten full members, as well as Kenya and Scotland, is scheduled to take place in South Africa from September 11-24.

- AFP