Did he or didn’t he? A slight case of DRS brain-fade

Rohit Mahajan

Tribune News Service

Kolkata, November 19

A possible case of a Steve Smith-style brain-fade, dugout-signalling might get the International Cricket Council (ICC) going through the footage of today’s play.

Sri Lanka No. 8 Dilruwan Perera was given out LBW off Mohammed Shami by umpire Nigel Llong in the 57th over of the innings. Perera looked at the non-striker, Rangana Herath, tilted his head sideways in a negative gesture, and then started to walk towards the pavilion. His eyes seemed to be focussed on the team dugout. Then, suddenly, he turned around and made the ‘T’ sign to umpire Llong, requesting a review. The review showed that Llong’s original decision was incorrect. Perera stayed and played another 27 balls, and added a further 36 runs with Herath.

It’s very difficult to remain non-partisan about this issue — opinion is neatly divided on nationalistic lines. This indicates that the focus has turned to patriotism, away from the merits of the case.

This is how some participants in action, and witnesses, reacted:

Rangana Herath

It is simple as this — what happened was I asked Nigel Llong whether there was a review left. I guess Dilruwan probably heard it as well and opted for review. I didn’t see any signal from the dressing room. I was looking at the umpire. I didn’t call him (Perera) back. He probably heard that I was asking the umpire whether any review was left.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar

That’s something I can’t speak on, because that should come out from the officials and we haven’t heard anything from the officials. So it won’t be fair to comment anything on that. 

We are quiet because until official word comes about the incident, we cannot speak about it. If we talk about it, but match referee says that was fair, then it would be a wrong thing to do. We didn’t pay attention to the incident, we were busy celebrating and giving high-fives. Later we saw it on the giant screen, but we didn’t comment on it because nothing was confirmed from the match officials. So we cannot say anything.

Simon Doull, commentator (New Zealand)

I don’t like that, I don’t like that at all… He’s walking away directly in the direction of his changing room. I do not like that he’s been able to turn towards the changing room, and then make a decision. The Sri Lankan dressing room is directly where he’s looking at. Then he turned around. I do not like this situation at all, that’s not good. 

You can see hands going up in the background! You see the hands go up there, go up and signal the ‘T’. And then he turns around and signals it! (After watching more replays)

Russel Arnold, commentator (Sri Lanka)

Even those (raised) arms could be instinctive, but even that is not allowed according to the rules… When someone is out, the coach could stand up and wave his arms (in frustration) or hit a wall… Who knows, it may have been something like that.

Sri Lanka Cricket

Contrary to the assumptions made, there was no “message from the dressing room” involved in the requested review. Having mistakenly assumed that Sri Lanka were out of reviews, Dilruwan Perera had turned to leave the field when he heard Rangana Herath enquire from umpire Nigel Llong if Sri Lanka had any reviews left, to which Long answered in the affirmative. It was then that Dilruwan requested the review.

Doull later said that “Sri Lanka don’t play cricket like that”. Curiously, something similar happened in the first Lanka-Pakistan Test in Abu Dhabi, on October 1. Kusal Mendis, given out LBW off Mohammad Abbas, started walking towards the dressing room. He suddenly turned around and asked for a review, which confirmed that he was out.

The Pakistanis alleged that Mendis turned back after he got a signal from the dressing room, and captain Sarfraz Ahmed complained. The controversy didn’t blow up because Mendis didn’t benefit from the DRS review, but the Pakistani team and media were sure that there had been a signal from the dressing room.

Perhaps ICC needs to frame a rule to address this sort of situation, when there could be a suspicion of instructions coming from the pavilion. 

Interestingly, the umpire involved today, Nigel Llong, had caught Smith red-handed, looking towards the pavilion for advice on DRS, in the second Test at Bengaluru in March.