Pakistan’s legendary former pacer Shoaib Akhtar, in a YouTube video on Monday, slammed match officials from the second One-Day International between Pakistan and South Africa on Sunday, for not properly enforcing the laws which the fast-bowler believed would have tilted the game in the Men in Green’s favour.
The 45-year-old expressed his frustration and disappointment after opener Fakhar Zaman narrowly missed out on a much-deserved 200-run knock.
“Everyone must be as disappointed as I am that Fakhar Zaman could not get to 200. I wouldn’t call it cheating but I wouldn’t call it in the spirit of the game either, the way Quinton de Kock removed him. In article 41.5, I think, if you deliberately distract a batsman, the side batting would be awarded five runs and the guilty side would have to bowl again. That means Pakistan could have gotten the two runs on the delivery in which Fakhar got out, a no-ball and five runs which makes it eight runs from that one ball,” Akhtar said.
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“This incident hurt the spirit of the game and this did not sit too well with me because Quinton de Kock is such a great kid. He should not do this deliberately. Poor Fakhar thought they would throw at the non-striker's end. He also acted like the ball was going at the non-striker's end,” he added.
Akhtar slammed the match referee and officials for not stepping in and correcting the decisions being made on the ground.
“I felt really bad watching this unfold. If you add those eight runs and five runs from earlier when the ball hit a player’s hat, then Pakistan was in this game easily. But I was saddened to see that no decision was taken there on the spot. This is because the awareness of the game is just not present. You can ask the umpires or the match referee and tell them this is wrong. The match referee didn’t step in either. Many people on social media believe that this was unfair and against the spirit of the game,” he said.
“This has happened and now we can’t do anything about it. They showed multiple replays and still the match referee couldn’t step in and give a verdict. I don’t know why they had issues implementing the laws of the game. This is my biggest question,” he concluded.