Mumbai, April 03: This one is going to trouble the International Cricket Council and the broadcasters of this World Cup for some time. A final is always a nervous occasion for both players and officials alike. It was proved evidently when MS Dhoni and Kumar Sangakkara came out for the toss with match referee Jeff Crowe and commentator Ravi Shastri.
Dhoni flipped the coin in the air for Sangakkara to call. The Lankan captain, as reports suggested, made the call but it was unheard by Dhoni, Crowe and Shastri too. Now, two versions of the whole incident were making rounds. One, where Michael Vaughan claims Sangakkara actually cheated MS Dhoni.
Vaughan, who was at the stadium, in his tweet said he heard Sangakkara on air calling tails. This meant he had lost it. But since Dhoni and match referee could not hear that, the Lankan southpaw realised that it could cost him to lose the toss. So he played ignorant and the toss was called again amidst the confusion.
There was another version to the whole controversy. Apparently, a leading website found that the TV producers could hear Sangakkara calling for heads but since both Dhoni and match referee had not heard it, the second toss was called for. Dhoni once again ran out of luck and lost the second toss too.
This isn’t the first time such an incident has happened. In an India-West Indies ODI in Jodhpur in 2002, Rahul Dravid and Carl Hooper along with match referee Mike Procter and commentator Ian Bishop were involved in a similar confusion. Dravid threw the coin as Bishop, Procter and Hooper looked on.
Bishop said, “Tail is the call,” (referring to what Hooper picked). Procter picked up the coin and Bishop announced “Carl Hooper” seeing tails and thinking Hooper had won. Suddenly, he saw Hooper shaking hands with Dravid and immediately said: “Oh, it’s Rahul Dravid, India have won the toss.”
Procter first insisted that Hooper won the toss. But when he was contacted later after the game, he had a different version. “Everyone seems to feel there’s a problem except the two captains and me. Hooper called heads and India won the toss.”
Dravid too had a similar version.
For Crowe, this was another World Cup final farce as a match referee. He was also at the helm of the Australia-Sri Lanka final in 2007 where an error of judgment by the match officials to make Lanka play three extra overs under very poor light gave Australia the match.
–Source: DNA