NCC peeved over umpiring errors

Tuesday, 11 March 2025 01:19 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

An NCC wicket falls, and Bloomfield celebrates

Robbed of a possible win in SLC Major Club final

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

NCC has expressed their concerns over umpiring decisions that possibly cost them the SLC Major Club 4-day final against Bloomfield played at the R. Premadasa Cricket Stadium.

Bloomfield went onto win the final in the first innings after piling up 508 and then dismissing NCC for 312.

NCC of course had the batting to overhaul Bloomfield’s massive total over two days, but three lbw decisions against their top order batsmen saw them crumbling from 209-2 to 286-6 from which position they failed to recover.

Skipper Sahan Arachchige who had scored three hundreds in the ongoing season, in-form Lahiru Udara whose innings was cruelly cut short at 145 and Kavin Bandara were all victims to dubious lbw decisions that greatly affected NCC’s run chase.

What was damning is that the umpires were apologetic to the batsmen after giving the decision.

NCC, it is reliably learnt, had captured these dismissals on video and also stated them in their umpires’ report.

But the damage had already been done.

Usually, a final of this magnitude is telecast live, but on this occasion, it did not happen apparently because it clashed with the televising of the traditional school Big Matches.

Had the match been televised the possibility of such umpiring errors taking place would have been minimised to a great extent.

The final was originally scheduled to be played from 27 February to 2 March but had to be rescheduled because of the incident that took place between Negombo CC and Badureliya SC that resulted in this match being replayed. As a result, the Major Club 4-day final was rescheduled from 5-8 March clashing with the school Big Matches.

NCC feel they have been played out not only by bad decisions but also by other factors that dictated the course of the match.

Being a major tournament final, it should have been televised live and given more prominence, but Sri Lanka Cricket sources said that it would have taken second preference at the height of the school Big Matches.

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