Cricket: Adopted Kiwi makes a bad call

New Zealand's cricketers did not expect this from an honorary southern man.

Nine seasons playing for Otago - as Kiwi as an Englishman can get - and yet he couldn't be persuaded by his "countrymen" when they needed him most.

Neil Mallender unwittingly became a key figure as Sri Lanka headed off New Zealand yesterday.

Standing in his first World Cup game, the man recognised as one of the best umpires on the international circuit made one bad call, and it couldn't have come at a worse time.

Sri Lankan captain Sanath Jayasuriya, on 18 in just the seventh over, hung the bat out at a Daryl Tuffey delivery and feathered it to wicketkeeper Lou Vincent.

The usually-reserved Tuffey charged towards Vincent, arms aloft, not even waiting for the decision. When he turned, aghast, at the other end of the pitch, former paceman Mallender stood as still as a statue.

It was the only invitation Jayasuriya needed as he plundered on to 120 off 125 balls to help Sri Lanka notch 272 for seven.

Granted it was a tough call, but the television people who watched endless replays and heard the noise were adamant it was out.

The man known as "Mal" in the south, who immediately developed an inbred dislike of Aucklanders in the fiercely-parochial Otago side of the 1980s, made some amends 102 runs later when he granted Nathan Astle a plumb leg-before shout against Jayasuriya.

But it was a touch too late. Even New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming, not one to offer much comment on umpiring decisions, reflected on the enormity of the call: "We had one that perhaps could have gone our way and changed the game, but that wasn't to be."

- NZPA

World Cup schedule

Points table