The five cricket officials — including South Africa’s Rudi Koertzen — who caused the final overs of the Cricket World Cup final in Barbados to be played in near darkness have been banned from officiating in the World Twenty20 tournament in South Africa in September.
International Cricket Council (ICC) match referee Jeff Crowe and umpires Steve Bucknor, Aleem Dar, Koertzen and Billy Bowden incorrectly ruled that, after a stoppage for bad light, the match would have to be completed the following day even though the minimum 20 overs in the second innings had already been bowled.
With both sides keen to avoid that fate and with the match already all but decided in Australia’s favour, it meant the final three overs of Sri Lanka’s innings were played in near darkness.
In the wake of what happened ICC manager Dave Richardson carried out a full investigation which included seeking the interpretation of all the officials.
”It would have been easy to let sleeping dogs lie and pretend nothing happened,” said ICC chief executive officer Malcolm Speed.
”But the reality is that the playing control team made a serious and fundamental error that caused the final of our flagship event to end in disarray and confusion.
”That was not acceptable for such experienced and talented officials and although we do not like to have to take such action, we felt it was necessary to decline to appoint them for our next event, the ICC World Twenty20 in South Africa.
”We feel that to stand them down for this two-week tournament is a proportionate measure,” he said.
Reacting to the decision, Crowe said: ”While it is never easy to take criticism, I think it is right that there are consequences for our actions as match officials. In this instance I understand that the ICC could not merely let it go.
”We set ourselves high standards as match officials and at the end of that day we did not reach those standards. It was not a pleasant experience for us but hopefully now we can look forward and learn from it.”
The final of the Cricket World Cup 2007 was won by Australia by 53 runs under the Duckworth-Lewis method.
The tournament, involving the ten ICC full members, as well as Kenya and Scotland, is scheduled to take place at three venues — Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg — between September 11 and 24. ‒ Sapa