West Indies head coach Darren Sammy raised questions on the impartiality and work ethics of the third umpire Adrian Holdstock for his controversial decisions against the West Indies during their first Test against Australia.
The TV umpire gave five highly debatable decisions across two days, with the majority of them going against West Indies. Following play on the second day, Sammy expressed displeasure over Holdstock’s umpiring and wondered if the official had anything against the team.
Speaking to reporters, the West Indies head coach stated that the team was seeking consistency and that they were trying to understand what the process was. Singling out Holdstock, Sammy claimed that he had been behaving in his particular manner against the Windies from the England series onwards.
“Yeah, look, you don’t want to get yourself in a situation where you’re wondering about certain umpires. Is there something against this team? But when you see decision after decision, then it raises the question. I know he’s here for the series. You don’t want to go to a Test match having that doubt,” Sammy said.
The West Indies coach further said that the team would wait to see if they want to lodge a formal complaint against the official. Sammy said that he hopes for a conversation, adding that the team did not want to head into the Test match without trusting the umpires.
“So I want to have that conversation as to the process. So we could be all clear because, at the end of the day, you don’t want to be going into a Test match not trusting the umpires. And that’s not what our team is about. So we’re just looking for some clarity as to the decisions,” he added.
Sammy said that the team was well aware of the rules and the fines that would be imposed for speaking against officials publicly. However, he claimed that despite these controversial calls, West Indies were still in a position to win the game.
“We know the rules. We know fines going all across the board,” he said. “I don’t want them to focus on that. Yes, we’re kind of shooting ourselves in the foot by dropping so many catches, but look at the Test match, where these decision were given against us. But we are still in a position to win,” Sammy said.
