Matthew Wade cops reprimand from ICC over ugly incident with umpire at T20 World Cup
Wade was reprimanded by the ICC for protesting an umpire's decision.
Aussie wicketkeeper Matthew Wade has reportedly been reprimanded by the ICC for his argument with umpire Nitin Menon during Australia's 36-run victory over defending T20 World Cup champions England on Saturday. In the 18th over of Australia’s innings at Kensington Oval, Wade pulled away just moments before English leg-spinner Adil Rashid delivered the ball.
The wicketkeeper-batsman then proceeded to block the ball as it headed towards him with no intention of scoring runs. But instead of signalling a dead ball, Menon chalked it down as a dot ball. This understandably confused and angered Wade and the following delivery he protested at the non-striker's end while also sharing a few choice words with England captain Jos Buttler.
"He pulled away and then played it," Buttler told reporters after the match. "The umpire was like, ‘Well, you sort of played it.’ But he said he pulled away. To be honest, I was thinking about many other things at that point."
The Laws of Cricket state that the umpire can signal a dead ball if "the striker is not ready for the delivery of the ball and, if the ball is delivered, makes no attempt to play it". In this case, the umpire deemed that he made an attempt to play it and therefore it was not a dead ball.
According to News Corp, Wade was reprimanded after the match for protesting Menon's decision. And Australian leg-spinner Adam Zampa said as far as the Aussie wicketkeeper was concerned it should have been a dead ball and so he felt wronged, before adding it "doesn't take much" to get Wade worked up.
"Wadey is a fiery guy," Zampa said after the match. "He’s super competitive and something ticked him over a little bit today, and that’s what we love about Wadey. He backed away and he played that shot and I think he felt like it was the same basically as letting it hit him on the leg on a dead ball.
"But it doesn’t take much to fire Wadey up. That’s the beautiful thing about Wadey, having him behind the stumps. He’s so competitive. You hear his voice and that makes a huge difference. If you’ve got a wicketkeeper who is quiet, whose body language is the opposite of someone like Wadey, you can feel that as well."
Travis Head says Matthew Wade distracted by music
Australian opener Travis Head believes the music blaring over the venue's loudspeaker prompted Wade to pull out. "All Wadey was doing was looking for clarification because he felt like he pulled out," Head said about the dead ball incident.
"When a bloke has gone four and four off the first two balls, it’s very rare for him to block the next one, especially Wadey. I think he didn’t really have intention (to play a shot). It followed him, he blocked it. Wadey just asked the question. They obviously went the other way that it was deemed fair and we moved on."
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Australia stay perfect at T20 World Cup
Australia's match against England was set to be the first real test of their T20 World Cup campaign. But it ended up being anything but as Australia cruised to a 36-run victory. Australia's openers David Warner (39 from 16 deliveries) and Head (34 from 18) laid the groundwork to help Australia reach 7-201 - the highest total at the tournament to date.
On a Bridgetown deck where runs weren't hard to come by, Aussie legspinner Adam Zampa did the damage for Australia with the ball, dispatching openers Jos Buttler and Phil Salt after they made a fast start in pursuit of Australia's large total. But after the openers were both sent packing, England were always well behind the required run rate as Australia cruised to victory.
The win keeps the Aussies undefeated through two matches at the World Cup and means they will finish top of Group B if they beat minnow nations Scotland and Namibia in their final two games before the Super 8 stage.
with AAP
