West Indies protest against erroneous no-ball calls in deciding T20I

Play was stopped for at least eight minutes during the series-deciding third T20I in Mirpur after West Indies captain Carlos Brathwaite contested a dubious on-field call by umpire Tanvir Ahmed.

The incident occurred in the fourth over of Bangladesh’s chase when Tanvir wrongly called a no-ball off Oshane Thomas. Replays later confirmed that Thomas had some part of his foot behind the line. Liton Das looked to clear the infield but was caught at mid-off.

West Indies wanted to review the on-field out decision, only to be told by match referee Jeff Crowe that they couldn’t opt for it, as it was confirmed that the delivery wasn’t a no-ball only after they heard from the West Indies dressing room.

The incident came minutes after Tanvir had called another no-ball off Thomas erroneously, off the fifth delivery. The free-hits of both no-balls were hit for sixes.

After word came from the West Indies dressing room that the sixth ball was also an umpiring error, the fielders protested with umpires Tanvir and Masudur Rahman.

Then they gathered around the pitch before Brathwaite ran towards their dressing room and held long discussions with the fourth umpire Sharfuddowla Ibne Saikat and later the match referee Crowe.

West Indies’ assistant coach Mushtaq Ahmed joined the discussion too, as did Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan. Brathwaite eventually returned to the field, letting play resume.

This wasn’t the first instance of an umpiring error in this series. In the previous T20I in Mirpur, both umpire Tanvir and Gazi Sohel had given an lbw decision each, though both were off inside edges. West Indies managed to overturn the on-field calls successfully both times after opting for reviews.

In the third ODI, Brathwaite, who was the 12th man then, had strongly pointed to the umpires that they hadn’t noticed the six fielders on the leg side when Bangladesh were fielding. Rovman Powell, the ODI captain, had got out when that field was employed, although West Indies didn’t protest his dismissal. Powell later called the errors “disappointing”.