By: Tarish Bhatt
The 2nd ODI at the Lord’s witnessed some bizarre scenes when Ben Stokes was given out for obstructing the field, after Australia captain Steven Smith appealed to umpires that the England all-rounder had willfully put his hand out on Mitchell Starc throw.
Onfield umpires, after getting the appeal, referred the case to third umpire who gave decision in favour of Australia. The decision received mixed responses, while Australia captain Steven Smith was booed by the crowd in the post-match presentation.
This was, however, wasn’t the first case a player of obstructing the field, and also not the last. It would happen again, and so does the blame game, but what’s next? Is there any solution to the problem? Despite having all the technologies at their disposal, are umpires using them?
They are actually! The third umpire saw a throw going Ben Stokes’ way, he saw his arm stretched wide, while the England batsman was out of his ground. So, they are using everything, just not the common sense, but well it is not so common. So, I am giving the umpire a benefit of doubt there!
Just thinking, Ben Stokes should have been given ‘a benefit of doubt’, seeing the ball was thrown at him from a mere 18 yards, after he had hit the ball just a moment ago.
You need not to be an Einstein to judge it was an instinctive reaction, and there was no time for Ben Stokes to obstruct the field deliberately. We have all seen Stokes, he might have good reflexes, but not that good.
“A guy was standing there five feet away from me and it was just a complete reaction,” Ben Stokes said. “I didn’t put my hand there wilfully, it was purely out of human reaction to protect myself. But the decision was made, there’s nothing I can do but it wasn’t wilful whatsoever.”
It was very much visible, that it was indeed an instinctive reaction, and in any normal case if an object is thrown, you would protect yourself without worrying about where your hands and legs are going.
But, the third umpire had time to think about what had happened. He had the TV footage available, he could have judged better, but…
“Wadey had a good view and said straightaway that he thought the ball was missing Stokes and hitting the stumps, so we appealed and it went upstairs and the umpire gave it out,” Steve Smith had said.
“The way I saw it was that he was out of his ground and he willfully put the hand out – which is rule I’ve been told – and he got given out by the umpire.”
“The umpires are there to do a job, to make a decision. It went upstairs to the third umpire, and he saw it the same way we saw it – and it was given out. If you willfully put your hand out in front of the ball then you’re given out, and that’s the way it went.”
