Mohali: Former Sri Lanka cricketer-turned umpire Kumar Dharmasena is on the ICC’s Elite panel of umpires. While he has enjoyed success as both a cricketer and an umpire, Dharmasena has had some difficult times while officiating during games.
However, the 45-year-old has been having a difficult time on the pitch, in the recent matches. Dharmasena was one of the two on-field umpires during the Chittagong Test between Bangladesh and England. While he had to take 16 decisions during the Test that England won by 22 runs, Dharmasena got half of them wrong. These eight decisions were overturned by the Decision Review System (DRS).
However, Dharmasena’s bad form seems to be following him around even when he is not taking decisions on the field.
Dharmasena almost made another blunder on the second day of the Mohali Test between India and England.
Chris Woakes had banged a short delivery into the ribs of India wicketkeeper-batsman Parthiv Patel, who tried to steer the ball away towards fine-leg. However, the ball flicked off Patel’s shirt and carried on towards England wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow, who immediately went up in appeal after catching it.
Umpire Marias Erasmus had ruled it to be out, but Patel decided to review the decision. The video reviews showed that the ball did not touch the bat at all, and had indeed flicked off the 31-year-old’s jersey. What Dharmasena said after this though, was what caught the attention of the entire cricket world.
“Marais, no edge,” said Dharmasena.
“You can stay with your original decision,” he continued, much to the disbelief of all the fans, who were watching the match on TV.
Thankfully, Erasmus did not hear that second part, and overturned his original decision.
While Patel survived on this occasion, social media exploded after Dharmasena’s blunder.
