Dhoni should've been punished: Harper

NEW DELHI: Three weeks after his retirement from ICC's Elite Panel of Umpires, Daryl Harper has lambasted the ICC for not punishing Indian skipper MS Dhoni for his comments criticizing Harper's umpiring in the first India-West Indies Test match at Kingston recently. Harper told a website that the incident betrayed that "selective management" is at work in cricket.

This, he said, was the primary reason behind his premature retirement. Harper told the website he felt targeted by the Indian team during the Kingston Test and that he had decided to speak out only because the ICC has kept its mouth shut.

When TOI tried to speak to the ICC CEO Haroon Lorgat on Harper's charge, ICC media manager James Fitzgerald said Lorgat won't respond to the allegations. "Every team plays under the ICC Code of Conduct. We don't want to comment on this."

Harper, during the interview, recalled many incidents which, he said, illustrated Indian team's antagonism towards him. Harper said that after he had disallowed pacer Praveen Kumar from bowling in the first innings for repeatedly running on the pitch, Dhoni came near him and uttered, "We've had problems with you before, Daryl". Harper interpreted it as an attempt to intimidate, the website reported.

Besides, Dhoni's post-match assertion "If correct decisions had been made the game would have finished much earlier" was inappropriate, according to the umpire.

Harper also described another incident when Abhinav Mukund, one of the close-in fielders, at one stage ran more than halfway up the pitch, charging towards the other umpire, Ian Gould, holding the ball and appealing for a bat-pad catch, which was turned down. Harper said he made a point of coming in from square leg and draw Dhoni's attention by saying that he was responsible for his team's behaviour and upholding the spirit of the game.

In reply, Dhoni didn't want to look at him, said Harper, but he insisted the message had to be received before the next ball was bowled and the game continued. "He reluctantly acknowledged I was on the planet and we moved on," Harper said.

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