Watch: Umpire Turns Down LBW Appeal Before Bizarrely Calling It Wide Ball

The umpires are once again under the scanner in the wake of the poor performance from the officials during the Brisbane Test between Australia and Pakistan last week. The umpires missed as many as 21 front foot no-balls sent down by Pakistan bowlers in Australia’s first innings. While umpiring is definitely an unforgiving job, one can really understand why the officials are facing the heat at the moment.

Last year too, a major controversy had taken place in the IPL after on-field umpire S Ravi failed to spot when Lasith Malinga over-stepped delivering the last ball of a close game between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Mumbai Indians. Royal Challengers had lost the game and their skipper Virat Kohli had not held back in speaking his mind out.

Earlier this month, the IPL Governing Council took an in-principle decision to take front foot no-ball’calls away from the on-field umpires in the next edition. As far as international cricket is concerned, there is Decision Review System in place so that the teams can challenge the umpire’s calls. The ICC is also set to introduce a new system under which the television umpire will check the front-foot no-balls. The trial will start next month with the series between India and West Indies.

“Over the next few months, the ICC is going to conduct some trials where the third umpire is going to call no-balls. The first series will be the India-WI T20 and ODI series starting Dec 6,” an ICC spokesman recently told Hindustan Times.

Worst umpiring decision of all time?

The cricketing fraternity will be hoping that the umpiring errors get minimised in the coming days. But amidst all these, a video has been going viral all over the internet because of an umpire’s unbelievable decision. The official not only turned down the decision from the bowling team but also bizarrely adjudged the delivery a wide ball.

The incident happened when the batsman tried to play a reverse sweep but missed it and the ball hit him on the pads. Unsurprisingly, the bowlers and others went up in unison to appeal. The umpire then turned down the appeal, took a couple of steps and extended his arms to signal wide, much to everyone’s utter surprise. The players just could not believe what they saw and some even started laughing in disbelief.

Here is that viral video: