Daryl Harper Withdraws From Third Ind-WI Test

Bridgetown: Umpire Daryl Harper has stepped down from doing duty in the third Test at Dominica involving India and West Indies in the wake of the Indian team criticising his decisions in the first Test. To be replaced by umpire Kettleborough.

It was to be Harper's final outing as an international umpire. He was removed from the Elite Panel in May by the ICC along with Sri Lanka's Asoka de Silva.

The ICC says it accepts Harper's decision to step down "with great regret" and adds an interesting footnote: "The reality of the situation is that Daryl's statistics show his correct decision percentage in Tests involving India is 96 per cent, which is considerably higher than the international average for top-level umpires."

"We had every faith in Daryl to finish the series and while we regret his decision we do respect it. The real shame is it deprives him of the opportunity to sign off as a Test match umpire in a manner befitting someone who has served the game so well since making his international debut back in 1994," says ICC general manager-cricket, David Richardson.

The ICC says, "in the wake of some unfair criticism, Daryl has informed us that he does not wish to stand in what would have been his final Test".

The BCCI is certainly going to be viewing this carefully. It is a remark concerning the Indian team that will not die any time soon given India's penchant to prove themselves 'right' in such situations.

The team, nevertheless, is hardly bothered. They didn't want Harper to officiate in the third Test and so will it be. Harper's already left the Caribbean and when last spoken to, he was all smiles when asked about the Jamaican sojourn.

"Yeah, we'll talk," he said but it never happened. It is learnt that Harper made his mind 48 hours after a few members of the Indian team spoke their minds and the issue got highlighted in the media.

The ICC protocol requires teams to refrain from coming on record and speaking against umpires and match referees while playing the game.

However, if the spirit of the game has to count both ways, players see no harm in saying what they had to. The ICC, which is now coming in support of Harper, had itself asked him to step down from the Elite Panel because of umpiring controversies.