Mitchley went down in cricket history as the first umpire to refer a decision to the third eye u00e2u0080u0094 to decide if Sachin Tendulkar was run out u00e2u0080u0094 in the Durban Test of 1992
Cyril Mitchley
While Johannesburg-based former international umpire Cyril Mitchley, 79, is stunned by Australia's opening batsman Cameron Bancroft's ball tampering act in the Cape Town Test, he is convinced that the ill is rampant in international cricket.
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Mitchley went down in cricket history as the first umpire to refer a decision to the third eye — to decide if Sachin Tendulkar was run out — in the Durban Test of 1992. Tendulkar had to depart for 11. "I am wondering why they [the Australians] did it. It's difficult to comment on that, but I am very surprised Bancroft did what he did because there are so many cameras on the field," Mitchley told mid-day yesterday.
"Having been in the game all my life, it's very sad to see people taking to cheating to win cricket games. I am sure that it [ball tampering] goes on. I don't know who, when or how… but it goes on! It's just that this particular guy got caught. No one can tell me that teams in the rest of the world are 100 per cent innocent," he concluded.
Mitchley felt the on-field umpires, Richard Illingworth and Nigel Llong did a good job with the controversy in Cape Town, but wondered (and stressed he may not be aware of the current regulations) as to why they didn't replace the ball once they had a discussion with Bancroft who later in the day admitted to damaging the ball with tape.
"I saw an opportunity to use some tape, get some granules from the rough patches on the wickets and change the condition — it didn't work, the umpires didn't change the ball," said Bancroft.
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