THE English umpire Mark Benson is understood to have retired from international cricket with immediate effect after withdrawing from the second day of the second Test match between Australia and the West Indies in Adelaide yesterday. The ICC said Benson, who has been on their elite panel since 2006, was too ill to stand, not just in this Test but for the rest of the series. But there are suggestions he was upset at his treatment on the first day when a number of his decisions were challenged under the controversial new referral system. One of them triggered a string of complaints from Ricky Ponting, the Australia captain.
Benson did not go to hospital but boarded a flight out of Australia. He is thought to be on his way to Britain, though he also owns a home in Florida.
The referral system was only recently formally agreed after a series of controversial trials, although some countries are still dragging their heels as they haggle with broadcasters over who pays for the extra technology. The system will be used in England's series with South Africa but India have refused to use it for their home matches with Sri Lanka.
David Richardson, the ICC's general manager, said that he did not know of Benson's retirement. "Vintcent van der Bijl, our umpires manager, has been speaking to him but I know Mark has a problem with his heart. He was anxious about it. It was worrying him."
If Benson has quit it will be the second big umpiring storm to hit the ICC in three years. Darrell Hair was in effect stood down after ruling that Pakistan had forfeited a Test at The Oval in 2006. Hair was subsequently reinstated to the international panel after taking the ICC to an employment tribunal.
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The first decision of Benson's that caused difficulty was an Australian appeal for caught behind against Shivnarine Chanderpaul. He was on 38 and given not out by Benson, a verdict that was upheld by Asad Rauf, the TV official. This led to a long-running inquisition by Ponting, who made several demands of match officials during the day for the reasons behind the not-out verdict. Ponting said later: "The new system was meant to stop this sort of thing happening but it didn't."
The incident understood to have most upset Benson was when Chanderpaul was later given out caught behind for 62 after Australia had again asked for a referral. Benson had given Chanderpaul not out but Rauf overturned his decision, although the evidence for doing this was unclear. Replays provided little evidence to suggest Chanderpaul's bat had made contact with ball, with any noise detected appearing to be caused by bat hitting pad, but the Pakistani official gave Chanderpaul out anyway. One Australian newspaper reported that Chanderpaul had been "crucified".