A series of poor umpiring decisions, all but one of them by home umpire Peter Manuel, prevented England from saving the follow-on early today against Sri Lanka.
Too many mistakes can ruin a contest and this one has suffered, despite fighting innings from Michael Atherton and Marcus Trescothick, who added
a half-century to the maiden Test hundred he made on Saturday.
Manuel by name, but automatic of finger, the umpire from Colombo has adjudicated like his namesake in Fawlty Towers. "I know nothing," may have been the hapless waiter from Barcelona's catchphrase, but here it seemed an accurate representation of this Manuel's knowledge of the laws of cricket. In the last two days he has made five howlers, four of them against England, an imbalance recognised by the England supporters here, who roundly booed him as he left the field at close of play. By contrast, his fellow umpire, AV Jayaprakash, from India has so far made one bad 'un, giving Trescothick out caught behind off his forearm, sweeping, an error TV replays highlighted within seconds.
Without doubt the worst was the lbw he gave against Alec Stewart on Saturday. Facing the left-arm spin of Sanath Jayasuriya, bowling over the wicket, the ball pitched four inches outside leg-stump, though even a fraction of an inch would have ruled it invalid. Blatantly bad decisions are difficult to accept with good grace, especially if your place in the team is in doubt. Arguably the unluckiest of Manuel's victims yesterday, Graeme Hick, was handed a suspended one match ban until the end of the series by the match referee, Hanumant Singh.
According to Hanumant, Hick showed dissent when given out caught behind off the pace bowler Chaminda Vaas in England's first innings. Standing his ground in disbelief as the finger was raised, the batsman then gestured to the umpire with both arms as if to ask what he might have been given out for. After a further delay, he eventually trudged off.
Once again TV replays showed what a bad error it was, with Hick's bat missing the ball but hitting the pitch as he drove at one wide of the off-stump. It was a big wicket as well, with England losing five wickets for 34 runs.
Later in the day, after Atherton and Trescothick had got England's second innings off to a fine start with a century partnership, Nasser Hussain also gestured in similar fashion after being given out lbw by Manuel off Muttiah Muralitharan. It was another questionable decision, despite Hussain hiding bat behind pad, but what probably saved the England captain from being summoned as well was that his gesture appeared to be at no-one in particular.
According to a statement issued when play had finished, Hanumant decided not to fine Hick due to the sincerity of the batsman's apology and the fact that he had no previous bad record. As a side, England have a reasonable record too, when it comes to indiscipline on the field and only Atherton, at The Oval in 1994, and Chris Lewis in Adelaide six months later, have been punished by match referees.
A former Test player for India, Hanumant appears to be a stickler for the rule book and he also wrote two open letters to the two sides. The one to the Sri Lankan dressing-room stressed the subject of unnecessary appealing and the unseemly rushing towards the umpire that seems to go with it. England's players, meanwhile, were warned for tapping their bats on the pitch before play, something Atherton had been caught doing as he stood at the crease visualising the challenge to come.
The first is a valid and fair point, though not one shared by the Sri Lankan captain, Jayasuriya, who later said that his team "appealed within the rules." In fact, with a posse of close fielders squawking like vultures at every titbit, there were times yesterday when the orchestrated appealing and general conduct of the game – something else the umpires are in charge of – verged on anarchy. As for Atherton's misdemeanour, something many batsmen like to do, it is pedantic in the extreme.
Sensing a decline in umpiring standards, the International Cricket Council has addressed the issue. Along with a small group of full-time match referees, the ICC plans to have an élite panel of eight umpires picked on merit, irrespective of their country of origin. They will be supported by a larger secondary panel of developing umpires. Yet as the élite group could conceivably all come from the same country, the question of neutrality must be compromised.
With TV replays already showing most umpire errors in glorious technicolour and 'slo-mo', the quickest fix would be to use the technology on offer. A powerful tool, it would still not be foolproof, as the dismissal of Craig White showed. Another of those given out by Manuel, White was dismissed after allegedly smashing a full toss from Jayasuriya into Russell Arnold's boot at silly point, whereupon the rebound fell to the wicketkeeper.
For once TV was stumped and no camera had decisive footage of the incident, proving that cameramen are just another link in the chain of potential human error. What was indicated, apart from a red mark on Arnold's boot, was that Manuel had made a wild guess, something umpires are not meant to do, traditionally giving batsmen the benefit of any doubt.
That dismissal was one of four that fell to Jayasuriya. With England exercising caution against Muralitharan – only three fours had been struck off his 79.3 overs – the captain nipped in as Hussain's team were bowled out for 253, a deficit of 217.
In their second innings, after Jayasuriya had surprisingly asked England to bat again, the effect of Muralitharan's workload became apparent as Atherton with pad, and Trescothick, with his long reach, kept him at bay on a pitch whose top has now disintegrated completely.
After a bad morning, the afternoon looked like passing without blemish when Trescothick, his 50 reached from 161 balls, was given out off his arm. Hussain followed soon after for one, leaving Atherton, a familiar figure when crisis looms, to see out the day without further alarm.
GALLE SCOREBOARD
Fourth day: Sri Lanka won toss
SRI LANKA – First Innings 470 for 5 dec (M S Atapattu 201no, P A De Silva 106, D P M Jayawardene 61, K Sangakkara 58).
ENGLAND – First Innings (Overnight: 202 for 4)
M E Trescothick c Sangakkara b Vaas 122, 395 min, 348 balls, 12 fours
R D B Croft c Jayawardene b Jayasuriya 9, 98 min, 75 balls, 1 four
G A Hick c Sangakkara b Vaas 5, 29 min, 22 balls
C White c Sangakkara b Jayasuriya 25, 58 min, 47 balls, 2 fours
A F Giles c Dilshan b Muralitharan 4, 27 min, 26 balls
A R Caddick c Jayawardene b Jayasuriya 0, 2 min, 2 balls
D Gough not out 0, 3 min, 1 ball
Extras (b2 lb3 nb21) 26
Total (491 min, 132.3 overs) 253
Fall (cont): 5-206 (Trescothick), 6-217 (Hick), 7-239 (Croft), 8-253 (White), 9-253 (Caddick).
Bowling: Vaas 24-7-53-3 (nb2) (2-1-3-0 7-2-10-0 6-2-10-1 3-0-11-0 6-2-19-2); Muralitharan 54.3-14-79-3 (nb11) (4-1-8-0 24-6-30-2 8-3-13-0 18.3-4-28-1); Dharmasena 22-6-51-0 (nb6) (2-0-14-0 4-1-7-0 4-1-10-0 1-1-0-0 2-0-9-0 9-3-11-0); Fernando 2-0-10-0 (nb 2) (one spell); Jayasuriya 27-7-50-4 (4-2-10-0 5-1-10-0 2-0-8-0 9-2-14-1 7-2-8-3); de Silva 3-2-5-0 (one spell).
Progress: Third day: 50: 65 min, 16.4 overs. Lunch: 83-0 (Atherton 33, Trescothick 40) 41 overs. 100: 189 min, 50.3 overs. Tea: 146-3 (Trescothick 81, Stewart 7) 72 overs. 150: 270 min, 72.2 overs. 200: 379 min, 102.5 overs. Close: 202-4 (Trescothick 119, Croft 0) 106 overs. Fourth day: 250: 480 min, 130.3 overs. Innings closed 12.12pm.
Trescothick's 50: 201 min, 166 balls, 6 fours. 100: 305 min, 265 balls, 12 fours.
ENGLAND – Second Innings
M A Atherton not out 44, 249 min, 193 balls, 1 four
M E Trescothick c Sangakkara b Jayasuriya 57, 194 min, 169 balls, 6 fours
N Hussain lbw b Muralitharan 1, 17 min, 20 balls
G P Thorpe not out 2, 36 min, 36 balls
Extras (b5 lb4 nb5) 14
Total (for 2, 249 min, 69 overs) 118
Fall: 1-101 (Trescothick), 2-105 (Hussain).
Bowling: Vaas 8-3-20-0 (nb2) (4-0-15-0 3-2-5-0 1-1-0-0); Fernando 4-0-10-0 (one spell); Jayasuriya 22-9-32-1 (9-5-12-0 13-4-20-1); Dharmasena 9-2-13-0 (5-2-5-0 4-0-8-0); Muralitharan 25-11-32-1 (nb3); Arnold 1-0-2-0 (one spell each).
Progress: Fourth day: lunch 4-0 (Atherton 3, Trescothick 1) 2 overs. 50: 96 min 25.4 overs. Tea: 73-0 (Atherton 25, Trescothick 38) 35 overs. 100: 193 min, 52.1 overs.
Trescothick's 50: 181 min, 161 balls, 5 fours.
Umpires: A V Jayaprakash and P T Manuel.
A series of poor umpiring decisions, all but one of them by home umpire Peter Manuel, prevented England from saving the follow-on early today against Sri Lanka.
Too many mistakes can ruin a contest and this one has suffered, despite fighting innings from Michael Atherton and Marcus Trescothick, who added
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