ICC sack World Cup Final Trio

The International Cricket Council have sacked all five match officials who officiated in the World Cup Final from standing in the upcoming Twenty20 World Cup.

The World Cup ended in farcical fashion after the umpires and off-field match officials failed to apply a standard playing condition where the players came back onto the field after a rain delay to complete another three overs even though the minimum of 20 overs had already passed.

ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed said in a media release that “It would have been easy to let sleeping dogs lie and pretend nothing happened.”

“But the reality is that the playing control team (the match referee and the four umpires) made a serious and fundamental error that caused the final of our flagship event to end in disarray and confusion,” Speed added.

“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.”

Match Referee during the World Cup Final Jeff Crowe said on the release that “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,” Crowe added.

The Twenty20 World Cup is scheduled for between September 11th to September 24th in South Africa.