West Indian head coach Darren Sammy has been handed 1 demerit point and a fine of 15% of his match fee after he questioned third umpire Adrian Holdstock's decision in the first Test between West Indies and Australia at Barbados. Sammy has indicated certain unfair decisions from the umpire's side, indicating partiality leading to which match referee Javagal Srinath sanctioned, and Sammy accepted it too.
Sammy breached Level 1 Code of Conduct violating Article 2.7 of the Code which says, "public criticism of, or inappropriate comment in relation to an incident occurring in an International Match or any Player, Player Support Personnel, Match Official or team participating in any International Match.”
West Indies head coach Daren Sammy has received one demerit point to his disciplinary record, marking his first offence within a 24-month span. Sammy accepted the sanction imposed by Match Referee Javagal Srinath after being charged by on-field umpires Richard Kettleborough and Nitin Menon, along with third umpire Adrian Holdstock and fourth umpire Gregory Brathwaite.
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What did Darren Sammy do?
The West Indies head coach visited the match referee after the end of Day 2's play to express his concern over a certain pattern of umpiring he felt was against the West Indies. The controversy rose regarding two decisions: the first one was an LBW decision during Roston Chase's dismissal off Pat Cummins and the second one was Shai Hope's catch against Travis Head. At the end of that day, Sammy said,
"You don't want to get yourself in a situation where you're wondering about certain umpires. Is there something against this team? But when you see decision after decision, then it raises the question.”
Even chase appealed to the ICC to take measures against umpires for their ruthless decision-making. Notably, Australia crushed West Indies by 159 runs in the Bridgetown Test. Josh Hazlewood claimed 5 wickets, and Head scored twin fifties to seal a dominant win.
