In the game of cricket, umpires have the highest authority to judge all the on-field aspects of the game. According to the laws of cricket, umpires can make their decisions and the players have to accept it without any question.
However, umpires are also human beings and they also make errors but that is to be expected. While in most cases a controversial umpiring decision gets ignored by the players on the field, sometimes it does lead to heated exchanges.
The captain of a team has the responsibility to communicate with the umpires whenever an unprecedented situation arises on the field but there are also many instances where a captain lost his cool and got involved in an argument with the officials.
Here are five of the most famous captain-umpire spats.
Mike Gatting in 1987
During the second Test match between Pakistan and England in Faisalabad in December 1987, England captain Mike Gatting got involved with one of the ugliest alterations in the history of the game with Pakistani umpire Shakoor Rana.
In the second day of the Faisalabad Test, Pakistan were struggling at 106 for the loss of five wickets in response to England’s 292. With three balls to go in the day’s play, The England captain brought David Capel to deep square-leg to prevent a single.
According to Gatting he had informed the batsman about the fielding change but Rana, who was standing at square-leg, stopped the play and accused Gatting of cheating. The Englishman was evidently furious and confronted the equally irritated umpire.
Both wagged their fingers ominously at each other and exchanged a spate of foul words. A lot of their conversation was transmitted worldwide through the stump microphones. This incident remains one of the ugliest alterations between a captain and an umpire in the history of cricket.
Javed Miandad in 1985
During the third Test between New Zealand and Pakistan in 1985 Pakistan captain, Javed Miandad got involved in a heated discussion with the on-field umpire. The series was evenly poised at 1-1 and the Pakistani team needed just two wickets to win the series.
Young Pakistani pacer Wasim Akram bowled a bouncer in the penultimate ball of the afternoon session and was warned by the umpire. The Pakistani captain was very upset with this and went up to talk about the issue.
Miandad was furious with the decision and had an altercation with the umpire as he continuously tried to make a point that bouncers are a part of the game. He looked furious and asked Akram to bowl a bouncer again in the last ball of the session.
Ricky Ponting in 2010
During the second day of the fourth Test at Melbourne between Australia and England, Ricky Ponting got involved in a prolonged debate with Pakistani umpire Aleem Dar. The Australian was on the verge of his third Ashes series defeat as a captain and his frustration showed on the field.
Australia appealed for a caught behind against England batsman Kevin Pietersen but was turned down by the on-field umpire. The Australian captain opted for a referral which was turned down by the third umpire.
The legendary batsman was extremely enraged by the decision and went to square-leg umpire Aleem Dar after the referral was turned down. Ponting continued to argue with the umpires and even went to Pietersen to talk about it before eventually going back to his fielding position.
MS Dhoni in 2012
The Indian limited-overs captain is one of the calmest sportsmen around and is known for his sportsmanship. However, Captain Cool also argued with the on-field umpires during an India-Australia ODI match in 2012.
India appealed for a stumping against Australia’s Michael Hussey off Suresh Raina’s bowling which was referred to third umpire Bruce Oxenford by the square-leg umpire. The third umpire first declared Hussey out but as he was walking towards the dough out, on-field umpire Billy Bowden called him back.
Apparently the third umpire pressed the wrong button but quickly made amends by asking the on-field umpire to call back the batsman, who wasn’t out. Hussey was laughing as he made his return to the crease but the Indian skipper wasn’t too amused by all that confusion and had a lengthy chat with the umpires.
It was very much evident by the body language of the 34-year-old wicket-keeper batsman that he was furious with the comedy of errors made by the third umpire. The Ranchi-born cricketer also argued with the on-field umpires about the decision to call the Aussie batsman back.
Virat Kohli in 2015
The Indian Test captain has a reputation for being aggressive on the field. He likes to give it back to the opposition whenever they throw anything at him. But the star batsman got involved in a heated argument with Sri Lankan umpire Kumar Dharmasena during IPL 2015.
The 27-year-old cricketer was leading the Royal Challengers Bangalore in a rain-affected match against Sunrisers Hyderabad which was reduced to 11 overs per side. The incident took place during the last over of the Sunrisers’ innings.
Kohli tried to draw the attention of the umpires in the previous over as it started to rain but the officials opted to continue with the game. By the end of the over, the RCB captain walked towards Kumar Dharmasena and animatedly asked him why the match was not stopped.
Kohli was clearly furious about the decision. Another on-field umpire Anil Chaudhary tried to calm him down. Though Kohli didn’t carry the argument on for long, Dharmasena looked very upset with the incident.
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