Cricket World Cup umpire farce sees shades of Tottenham vs Liverpool VAR howler

An umpire error at the Cricket World Cup can draw comparisons with the VAR shocker from Tottenham’s match against Liverpool last weekend. The incident may not see the Pakistan coach ask for the match to be replayed, though.

VAR hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons in north London last Saturday. Luis Diaz scored a perfectly good goal but VAR official Darren England didn’t communicate the correct decision to the on-field referee Simon Hooper.

Liverpool are not letting the incident drop and Jurgen Klopp says the best outcome is for the match to be played again. That has led to criticism from rival clubs, who have all been on the wrong end of dodgy VAR calls.

Cricket authorities will be hoping there are no controversies as big as that during the tournament in India. But, during just the second game, there has been an incident akin to that at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Netherlands won the toss and stuck Pakistan in to bat in Hyderabad on Friday. In just the 14th over, the umpires had a moment they will want to forget.

Read more… Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp sees first Prem boss shoot down replay demand

Jurgen Klopp calls for Spurs match to be replayed after VAR mistake

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Netherlands were on top, with Pakistan already three wickets down. To make matters harder for Pakistan, the 14th over only contained five deliveries.

Over was called after Saud Shakeel had hit a four on the fifth delivery. On-field officials Adrian Holdstock and Chris Brown were both satisfied that a full over of six balls had been bowled.

TV umpire Rod Tucker did not alert Holdstock or Brown before fielders were in place for the start of the 15th over. And once another ball had been bowled, there was no going back.

In the MCC’s Laws of the game, Law 17.5 states: “If the umpire miscounts the number of valid balls, the over as counted by the umpire shall stand”. Therefore, once the mistake had been realised, play could not go back to finish the previous over.

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That is where the comparison with VAR error at Spurs comes in. England believed Diaz’s goal had been given onside on the pitch and confirmed that by drawing the 2D lines.

He communicated “check complete” to Hooper, thinking he would give the goal. But England had actually been mistaken and the initial on-field decision was offside.

England was alerted to his error but by the time he had realised, Tottenham had restarted the match with a free kick. IFAB rules state that once play has resumed, there was nothing the officials could do.

The error from Messrs Holdstock and Brown is unlikely to draw anywhere near the same furore. Pakistan comfortably beat the Netherlands by 81 runs to begin their World Cup campaign with a win.

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