yeah basically this. It's incredibly unlucky it happened to be a wicket ball, but if Smith had a word with the umpire before-hand about it then I fail to see how it's such controversial umpiring. It's a kind of law where it will probably only be enforced if someone complains.
I still don't see the problem. He saw it happen a few times, figured he needed to do something once Smith spoke to him about it. He called it as soon as Finn hit the stumps too, so it wasn't what happened that caused it.
mther****er
Nah I can see where this is coming from. The law doesn't specifically say that it's dead ball if the bowler knocks the stumps down; it says it's a dead ball if it's distracting. I can definitely see the argument that it's not distracting if it happens once or twice randomly but if it keeps happening and the batsman makes the umpire aware he's being distracted, then it's deemed distracting.
I'd be calling it outrageous anyway; we'd just have fewer people bothering to take to me about it. It's a poor call IMO unless he's literally doing it every ball or he's doing it on purpose.
Oh yeah, I'm absolutely certain he's doing it deliberately. He just loves being denied well-earned wickets.
If it wasn't a law then the player would have no right to complain, and the umpire shouldn't have to do anything about it. It has to be a law though, because if a batsman is actually distracted by it then that's a problem that needs to be addressed.
You also said the umpire was on your list because he enforced the laws... so....
