The no-ball fracas during the Indian Premier League (IPL) match between Delhi Capitals (DC) and Rajasthan Royals (RR) on Friday (April 22) has sparked a world of debate around it. The infamous incident has left the cricket fraternity talking and the latest to react on the incident is the cricket great Kumar Sangakkara, who is also the coach of RR.
Sangakkara finally gave his opinion on the last over drama which saw DC skipper Rishabh Pant protesting against the umpire's decision after a six hit by Rovman Powell claiming that it was a no-ball with the delivery being a waist-high full toss. However, the umpire's decision to not adjudge it a no-ball stood still and DC suffered a 15-run defeat at the hands of RR.
The 44-year-old feels that end of the day it is umpires that control the game.
“I think it is the umpires who control the game. There is a lot of pressure and tension in the IPL. Things can go either way, when you have a situation like that, in the end, the umpires control the situation. And the game went on. That’s how I look at it. I don’t think I can really dictate what is acceptable and what’s not,” Sangakkara said in a press conference.
“At the end of the day, it is the players out there who play and the umpires have a tough job in terms of calling the game and our job as support staff is basically to support the players out there and let the game be played,” he further added.
Meanwhile, Pant was on Saturday fined 100 per cent of his match fee, while DC's assistant coach Pravin Amre was handed a one-match ban for breaching the IPL Code of Conduct. Besides the one match ban, Amre was also fined his entire match fees, while DC pacer Shardul Thakur too has been penalised 50 per cent of his match-fees.
India's former player Wasim Jaffer also opined on the no-ball controversy and took a swipe at Pant.
“Rishabh Pant calling the players back was way out of line. We don’t want to see that. The game needs to go on. It’s understandable that sometimes umpires make mistakes and you got to take it in the spirit of the game,” said Wasim Jaffer.
