Dhoni to Daryl Harper: “We’ve Had Problems with You Before”

In a stunning scathing attack on the Indian captain and the ICC over their inaction, umpire Daryl Harper continues to feel that Mahendra Singh Dhoni should have been hauled up for trying to intimidate the umpires during the recently concluded India West Indies series.

Daryl Harper, Mahendra Singh Dhoni

Daryl Harper declined to stand in what would have been his ninety-sixth and final Test as an international umpire in the third Test of the India West Indies series in Dominica. The reason for that was the intense scrutiny of the umpiring standards in the first Test and the reactions from the Indian captain and team following the conclusion of the Test that India won to eventually win the series 1-0.

At the time Dhoni had spoken in the media stating that had the right decisions been given, India would have been back in the hotel much before the prolonged stay. However, Harper feels that the Indian captain is in violation, speaking as he did following the conclusion of the match and feels the ICC should have put their foot down on cricketers criticizing the umpires in such fashion.

Harper felt he had his say when he made a statement explaining his decision to withdraw from the third Test. The ICC took cognizance of his decision with regret, terming the criticism as harsh and unfair but failed to take any further action against the Indian captain or the Indian cricket team, which has left Harper fuming.

Harper is now terms as selective the ICC’s decision to not take any action for the players speaking disrespectfully of the umpire and claimed he did not want to stand in what would have been his final Test because the only thing the focus would have stayed on would be his umpiring and not on the cricketers, as should be the case. Harper though is disappointed that the ICC is not reprimanding the players in what can only be described by him as Indian making selective decisions about who to punish and who not to.

Harper is now taking on Dhoni himself, given that the ICC has nothing in his opinion apart from issue a statement about the percentage of accuracy of his decisions, and he sensationally states that the Indian captain is guilty of trying to intimidate the umpires. Harper may have hung up his boots as an umpire but his voice refuses to be stifled as he is willing to launch an offensive on the erring Indian cricketers, forced, he claims, by the ICC sitting mum on the incident.

There was another important incident within the first Test when Praveen Kumar made a memorable Test debut but was later pulled up by umpire Daryl Harper for transgressing on the danger zone of the pitch during his bowling follow through and eventually preventing from bowling for the rest of the innings, despite the remonstrations by the Indian captain.

Daryl now states that Dhoni had specifically told the umpire, “We’ve had problem with you before, Daryl” which the Australian umpire reveals as the Indian captain’s frustration to not be able to influence or intimidate the umpires on the field. Yet again Harper claims that there is clout and power at play and that he is disappointed that the ICC has only provided lip service to him while doing nothing in terms of taking decisive action on the Indian cricketers who he feels have spoken out of turn.