Dhoni showed lack of respect for Spirit of cricket, says former ICC umpire Daryl Harper

Former International Cricket Council (ICC) umpire Daryl Harper criticized Chennai Super Kings captain MS Dhoni, saying he showed a lack of respect to the Spirit of Cricket when he delayed the resumption of play in the Qualifier 1 against Gujarat Titans on Tuesday, so that fast bowler Matheesha Pathirana would be eligible to bowl. 

Rules stipulate that if a player on the fielding team is off the field for more than eight minutes, he must spend the same amount of time on return to the field before he is eligible to bowl again. 

Ahead of the 16th over of the Qualifier 1 against Gujarat Titans, Sri Lankan fast bowler Matheesha Pathirana is believed to have been off the field for nine minutes, and Dhoni had attempted to bowl the 21-year old five minutes after he had returned to the field. 

This led to Dhoni engaging in a conversation with the umpires for four minutes, so that Pathirana would be eligible to bowl the 16th over, and thereby bowl the remaining three overs of his four-over quota. 

"Of course MS Dhoni wasted time to allow his preferred bowling option to deliver the vital sixteenth over. That’s the only conclusion that I can draw from that disappointing spectacle," Harper said.

"The issue for me is the lack of respect shown for the Spirit of cricket and for the directions of the umpires. There were other options for the captain but they were ignored. Maybe some people are bigger than the law or in this case the Spirit of cricket. It’s always disappointing to see the lengths that some people will go to in order to win."

This fiasco immediately reminded this umpire of a similar issue in the Cape Town Test between South Africa and India in January 2007. 

"When the home team lost their last three wickets in seven deliveries at the end of the third day, Sachin Tendulkar had been off the field for eighteen minutes. When India lost Jaffer on the fourth morning, Sachin was unable to bat in his allocated no four position because six minutes remained of his ‘penalty’ time. Captain Rahul Dravid was at the non-striker’s end when Saurav Ganguly finally reached the crease after pandemonium had broken out in the change rooms with no alternative ready to bat," Harper recalled. 

"Stalling for time was not an option for Dravid, however I don’t believe it was a tactic he would have ever considered. It just wasn’t cricket and there were standards in that era", Harper added.