TKR review against Imad Wasim sparks ‘chaos’ and debate in CPL

A leg-before-waiver call against Imad Wasim of the Antigua and Barbuda Falcons, which oscillated between out and not out for more than ten minutes, caused “chaos”, controversy, and an unprecedented delay in the CPL match in Port-of-Spain vs Trinbago Knight Riders.

Before Wasim was brought back to continue batting, third umpire Nigel Duguid briefly reversed the first not-out call. This led to passionate conversations between TKR captain Kieron Pollard and the on-field umpires, Christopher Taylor and Patrick Gustard.

The incident took place immediately after Hassan Khan was dismissed for 36 off 20 balls by Sunil Narine on the second delivery of the tenth over of the chase. When Wasim attempted to defend his opening ball with a forward press in front of the stumps, Narine pitched the ball on a decent length from around the wicket, and it struck Wasim’s pads directly in front of the middle stump, the Falcons needing another 67 from 65 deliveries. Umpire Taylor first ruled the loud lbw appeal not out, and Narine asked Pollard to review the call. Ball-tracking revealed the ball striking the leg stump when Pollard did, which would have meant a golden duck for Wasim.

But Imad Wasim appeared certain that he had edged the ball before it reached his pad.

Before leaving, he was observed conversing with the umpires and even offered to evaluate TKR’s review after replays on the big screen revealed he had won. Along with the rest of the team, Falcons assistant coach Curtly Ambrose was viewing the replays in the dugout when he was observed making protest gestures from slightly outside the line against Wasim’s termination.

Seeing the inside edge, the umpire quickly reversed his judgement to call Pollard out. However, this only served to start a heated argument between Pollard and the two on-field umpires, during which TKR coach Phil Simmons signalled from the dugout. The TKR camp was obviously upset at the final decision, which resulted in a nearly 12-minute wait. Later, Wasim scored the winning runs.

TKR is still second in the standings despite the Thursday loss. However, they are not been guaranteed a postseason spot, and Pollard, who was clearly unhappy, kept the presentation brief. He claimed that if he talked about the Wasim event, “I’ll get into trouble.” “So I better stay quiet on that.”

Chris Green, the captain of the Falcons, was more animated. Green exclaimed, “Chaos, absolute chaos.” “I’m not sure what happened. He was given out when he shouldn’t have been, and he was instructed to stand over the rope even though he probably shouldn’t have. Absolute anarchy.

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I’m not sure what occurred, but there are still plenty of entertaining aspects to this event. Extremely pleased with the victory. We completely deserved to win since we outplayed them tonight in every aspect of the game.”