WICB must take action

THE EDITOR: Permit me to vent my utter disgust in the current England and West Indies cricket series. Cricket is supposed to be a gentleman’s game and what I am seeing is blatant that West Indies batsmen, of all the ten Test playing nations, continue to get bad umpiring calls. It is high time we West Indians and the WICB should vent our dissatisfaction with the panel of ICC umpires as incompetent. Umpires like Daryll Harper and Rudy Koerzten are prime examples of mediocrity at international standard of the modern game of cricket.

They bring on to the field a bad vibe that is killing the one thing that brings people of the Caribbean together; cricket. First they target Germaine Lawson when he destroyed Australia with raw pace. They say that his action is illegal. Harper, the standing umpire, give Lara out recently and if he wasn’t sure the square leg umpire should have been called into play and if he was not sure they should have resorted to the third umpire.

Bad umpiring calls on Gayle and Lara could determine the outcome of a Test match and if we lose this series it will haunt us for a long time to come. Dropped catches are a hindrance to our progress and penalty must be imposed on mediocre batting and spilling of catches. Please ICC, get your act together because other West Indian nations would lose confidence in your umpires who are said to be of international standard. Trini cricket lovers are feeling the pain.

MICHAEL DENNIE
GREGORY NEPTUNE