‘Some people are bigger than laws and spirit of cricket’: Ex-ICC umpire on MS Dhoni

CSK skipper MS Dhoni (second from left) chats with umpires Chris Gaffaney and Anil Chaudhary as pacer Matheesha Pathirana looks on at Chennai, on Tuesday. Pic/BCCI; IPL; (right) Daryl Harper

Former ICC umpire Daryl Harper has said that he believes Chennai Super Kings skipper MS Dhoni deliberately wasted time to let the slingy Sri Lankan pacer Matheesha Pathirana bowl against Gujarat Titans in the IPL Qualifier at Chennai on Tuesday night.

Pathirana was not on the field for eight minutes and as per the IPL playing conditions, a player leaving the field to treat an internal injury or for any other reason for more than eight minutes needs to be on the field for a similar duration when he returns before being eligible to bowl.

MS Dhoni got his pacer to bowl the 16th over when Gujarat needed 71 for victory. A conversation between Dhoni and the umpires followed and the former India captain was apparently told that Matheesha Pathirana won't be allowed to bowl for eight minutes which was how long he was off the field. By the time the conversation ended, eight minutes had elapsed and Pathirana, 21, eventually bowled his over.

Daryl Harper and MS Dhoni

Adelaide-based Daryl Harper wasn't impressed. "Dhoni wasted time to allow his preferred bowling option to deliver the vital 16th over. That's the only conclusion that I can draw from that disappointing spectacle. The issue for me is the lack of respect shown for the spirit of cricket and for the directions of the umpires. There were other [bowling] options for the captain, but they were ignored.

"Maybe, some people are bigger than the law or in this case, the spirit of cricket. It's always disappointing to see the lengths that some people will go to in order to win," said Harper.

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This is not the first time the Australian umpire has been displeased with Dhoni. The then India captain criticised the umpiring during the 2011 India v West Indies Kingston Test which the visitors won by 63 runs. Ian Gould was Harper's partner in that Test. "If the correct decisions were made the game would have finished much earlier and I would have been in the hotel by now," Dhoni told reporters after the match. In an interview with Asianet Newsable in 2020, Harper reacted: "They [Dhoni's team] would have been back [at the hotel] earlier if the Indian fieldsmen had taken their catches as well. Sometimes I wished I could have attended those post-match press conferences on a regular basis in order to set the record straight." On Thursday, the Tuesday night fiasco reminded Harper of another time-related issue that was witnessed in the India v South Africa Test at Cape Town Test in January 2007.

Harper recalled: "When the home team lost their last three wickets in seven deliveries at the end of the third day, Sachin Tendulkar had been off the field for 18 minutes. When India lost Wasim Jaffer on the fourth morning, Sachin was unable to bat in his allocated No. 4 position because six minutes remained of his ‘penalty' time. Captain Rahul Dravid was at the non-striker's end when Saurav Ganguly finally reached the crease after pandemonium had broken out in the change room with no alternative ready to bat. Stalling for time was not an option for Dravid. However, I don't believe it was a tactic he would have ever considered. It just wasn't cricket [that mattered] and there were standards in that era."