Call it pressure from the franchise owner or to perform best in the IPL, from players to coaches and other officials associated with the team are second to none in confronting the umpires.
Ricky Ponting and Sourav Ganguly, who were captains of two legendary teams, clashed with an umpire on Thursday. Five years ago, Mahendra Singh Dhoni had reached the on-field umpire from the dugout to confront and two years ago, Rishabh Pant had given an order to call back both his players on the field in protest against the umpire’s decision.
In fact, the franchise owner who spends crores in building the team, wants to see his team win at any cost. His pressure on the support staff including the team captain is clearly visible. It was the result of a kind of pressure that even experienced players like Ponting and Ganguly were seen raising questions on an umpire’s decision on Thursday.
In this match, Rajasthan Royals had fielded Hetmyer, Bolt and Buttler as foreign players. Nandre Berger was fielded as an impact player and Rovman Powell as a fielder. Both of them protested that fielding five foreign players including Powell was against the rules. Citing Section 1.2.6 of the ICC rules, the umpire said that if three foreign players are present on the field, then the fourth foreign player can be fielded, even if he is an extra player.
Similarly, five years ago, MS Dhoni had protested against changing the no-ball decision on a full toss ball of Ben Stokes by the leg umpire. The leg umpire first gave no-ball and then reversed that decision. It was from here that the protest from Mahi’s side started. He became so hyper that he came near the umpire from outside the field and started protesting against this decision. It didn’t take long for Captain Cool to become the hot captain.
Two years ago, in the match against Rajasthan Royals, Rishabh Pant protested against not giving a no ball to a waist height ball and asked both the Delhi Capitals players present on the field to be called out of the field. Last year, Ravichandran Ashwin also protested against changing the ball in the match against CSK due to the ball getting wet due to dew. He said that he should have taken this decision after telling both the captains about this.
Obviously, there is no action taken to protest against the umpire’s decisions in IPL like in international cricket, even though international level umpires are present here too. One umpire even said that if money was not the attraction, he would never like to umpire in the IPL. He also said that he not only has to face the objectionable attitude of not only the players but also the franchise owners at times.