Umpiring standards in the ICC World Cup Qualifier playoffs came under question after video footage highlighted the position of the on-field umpire in a last-over run-out attempt during a Namibia–Canada match.

The incident occurred off the third ball of the 50th over of the Namibia innings. Namibia were 262-9 at that point, immediately after Bernard Scholtz had been run out by the bowler. Ben Shikongo, Namibia’s No.11, was cut in half by a Kaleem Sana delivery, and sprinted to the other end, challenging a throw from wicketkeeper Srimantha Wijeratne.

As the batters ran to exchange ends, the throw reached Sana. What followed was a comical run-out attempt: the bowler seemingly tried to have a half-hearted shy at the stumps, but ended up lobbing it to the fielder backing up. He collected the feeble and got rid of the bails – which was when the umpire’s dubious position came under the scanner.

Instead of standing parallel to the crease to be in a position to judge the run out, the umpire stood facing the stumps diagonally. From there, it appeared near-impossible for him to judge both the time of the dislodging and the position of the incoming batter. Worse, he nearly collided with the sprinting Shikongo.

Shikongo was ruled not out – but the bigger question remained over the quality of the qualifier itself. The inaugural edition of the qualification process for the World Cup, with the top two teams from the competition progressing to the Qualifier in June and July, with a chance to feature in the main event later in the year.

Journalist Bertus de Jong shared the footage on Twitter with the caption: “Running, fielding, camerawork – everything about this is comically sub-village of course, but look where the umpire’s stood to judge a last-over last-wicket line call. Again. I mean come on.”

Another journalist, Jarrod Kimber, quote-tweeted the same with: “The ICC should be embarrassed at this umpiring in a qualification event. (Or an under 12s game).”

 

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