The ICC have defended their under-fire umpire Daryl Harper, with Roshan Mahanama, the match referee, insisting that he acted entirely as he should in deciding that Graeme Smith should not be given out yesterday.
England subsequently lodged an official complaint with the world governing body over the DRS process which reprieved the South Africa captain on 15, on his way to scoring 105 out of a stumps total of 215 for two on day two.
Mahanama said in an ICC statement today: “During the review, the TV umpire followed the correct protocol - and as he did not hear any noise to indicate the ball hitting the bat, he recommended (on-field umpire) Mr (Tony) Hill to uphold his earlier decision. It must be noted that umpire’s decision is final.”
Mahanama addressed specifically the issue raised by Andy Flower last night - when the England coach reported he had been told Harper did not turn up the volume on his audio/video feed to ascertain whether there was a noise indicating Smith had in fact hit the ball as he flailed a cut at Ryan Sidebottom.
“There have also been suggestions in a section of the press that Mr Harper had turned down the feed volume,” added Mahanama.
Advertisement
“It is clarified that the volume on the third umpire’s feed, right throughout the series, had been configured to optimise the quality of the audio, by both an SABC [host broadcaster] head engineer and the ICC technical adviser.
“It is also worthwhile to mention here that at no stage I indicated to the England team management that the third umpire had forgotten to adjust the volume of the speakers. I had actually briefed the England team management of the protocols that were followed during this review.
“If the audio level had been increased above its optimum level, distortion on the audio feed would have occurred - and the feed might not have given a clear indication of the true sound.”