"Inherently in live television there are occasions when on field decisions cause reason for discussion or debate, but as ICC TV host broadcasters our duty is not to judge or highlight mistakes," the email reads
The ICC’s World Cup broadcast partner has told its production and commentary crew not to “amplify” umpiring mistakes or “show umpires in a bad light” in an in-house email which prompted an angry reaction from Michael Holding and will trigger accusations of censorship.
Huw Bevan, head of cricket at Sunset & Vine - the company employed to provide the ICC feed from this summer’s tournament - sent a memo to senior figures within his team on the ground in the UK on Friday, June 7, in the aftermath of Australia’s victory over West Indies at Trent Bridge.
In the email, the executive addresses a section of coverage which highlighted a large front-foot overstep by Mitchell Starc the delivery before he dismissed Chris Gayle, which was not spotted by the onfield umpires and should have lead to a free hit.
“Inherently in live television there are occasions when on field decisions cause reason for discussion or debate, but as ICC TV host broadcasters our duty is not to judge or highlight mistakes even though occasionally we are privy to technology and footage which gives us access,” Bevan wrote.
The front-foot overstep by Mitchell Starc which prompted the email
“We had an incident in the West Indies v Australia match where we highlighted on air during an analysis segment that a no ball should have been called on a delivery that was immediately prior to the one where Chris Gayle was dismissed.
“As such we intimated that a free hit should have been awarded. For the avoidance of doubt this is exactly the kind of thing that we need to avoid putting to air.”
The missive was sent to around two-dozen high-ranking members of staff, but only one commentator - Holding, who had called the umpiring performances by Chris Gaffaney and Ruchira Palliyaguruge during the West Indies-Australia match “atrocious”.
The Windies legend sent a strongly-worded response, in which he said “this just reminds me why I haven’t been working on ICC tournaments recently and have been loath to work in India on cricket owned by the BCCI as well.”
“I have been doing commentary now for approaching three decades and I see where commentators are being more and more compromised by controlling organisations to the point of censorship and I do not intend to go down that road.
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“We are allowed to analyse players’ strengths and weaknesses, pick apart players’ techniques and faults yet when an umpire makes a cockup he is supposed to be protected?
“If those umpires yesterday were FIFA officials and had the same sort of day that they had, they would have been told to pack their bags and head home, they would not have been given another World Cup game to officiate.”
Holding went on to query whether or not he should report for duty at England’s clash with Bangladesh in Cardiff the following day. He has since returned to the commentary box.
“I know this is not football, although as a biased former cricketer I think cricket should be held to a higher standard, and I know this broadcast is ‘owned’ by the ICC but is the objective to protect umpires even when they do a bad job?” Holding wrote in his email.
“To whose benefit? The umpires who could be wrecking the careers of the people who really matter, the cricketers?”
Full email to production staff - June 7"This is to remind you of the importance of maintaining the highest of standards and to uphold the game’s best values and spirit in all that we do while covering the tournament. Our duty at ICC TV is to reflect these values and not to cast doubt or negative judgement on anything associated with the tournament in our coverage."Inherently in live television there are occasions when on field decisions cause reason for discussion or debate, but as ICC TV host broadcasters our duty is not to judge or highlight mistakes even though occasionally we are privy to technology and footage which gives us access."We had an incident in the West Indies v Australia match where we highlighted on air during an analysis segment that a no ball should have been called on a delivery that was immediately prior to the one where Chris Gayle was dismissed. As such we intimated that a free hit should have been awarded. For the avoidance of doubt this is exactly the kind of thing that we need to avoid putting to air."Before the event we went to great pains to explain to you all as senior production and commentary personnel of the need to avoid this kind of thing. It's critical for us that we should never amplify umpires mistakes by giving airtime to those incidents nor show the umpires in a bad light. We should also be very careful not to look to create controversy around an event or match at any time"This is therefore a strong reminder to you all to remember these values and to uphold the strongest of standards in our coverage for the rest of the tournament."
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Posted by Marc Evans on 20/06/2019 at 18:16
Typical corporate behaviour, why should we expect different from an organisation that has a history of dodgy dealings. Footie and Rugby seem prepared to accept official's decisions being put in the spotlight, so why not cricket. Now they have the benefit of slow motion replays and endless camera angles to call on there is little incentive for officials to develop instincts using experienced ears and eyes. What we are seeing in many VAR related sports is interpretation is still an issue, there is still almost as much controversy with all the technology.
Posted by David North on 16/06/2019 at 06:49
As ICC TV host broadcasters their duty is to tell their paying customers what is happening in the match they are watching.
Posted by Peter (umpiring in France) on 15/06/2019 at 17:58
I've not seen the frames leading up to this footfall; so I don't know whether Starc's front foot slid from behind the popping crease. Given the nature of the comments, I guess it didn't. But it looks so blatant that I even wonder whether it could be a deliberate front-foot fault (which Law 41.8 penalises by an immediate suspension).
Posted by michael thompson on 15/06/2019 at 07:27
I would like to hear Ian Botham's and David Lloyd's thoughts on this.
Posted by Steve Bithell on 14/06/2019 at 13:37
The underlying problem is that the ICC are not prepared to admit that people like Gaffaney, Dharmasena and Samuels are not fit to umpire at the highest level. It is also not confined to ICC tournaments; a certain Sky commentator spent four hours bullying me on Twitter during the recent tour of the West Indies for daring to Tweet my criticism of an acknowledged mistake by Brathwaite.
Posted by Brian Jones on 14/06/2019 at 13:20
Makes one wonder whether ICC are suitable guardians of our great game. Holding 1 ICC 0.
Posted by Caroline McCullough on 13/06/2019 at 10:08
Shouldn’t the Third Umpire be watching and communicate to the onfield umpires that they may have missed something by halting play and having re-runs