New Delhi: Former Australian umpire Daryl Harper on Wednesday claimed that former Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni tried to intimidate him during Kingston Test after he banned Praveen Kumar from bowling from the rest of the innings.
During West Indies vs India series opener in 2011, Harper had banned Praveen, who was making his Test debut, from bowling in the remainder of the innings after the India pacer was running down to the middle of the pitch.
India's West Indies tour was supposed to be Harper's final tournament as ICC umpire but he decided to quit after the first Test due to his on-field spat with Dhoni.
“Maybe he was letting off steam and hadn’t appreciated me removing Test debutant Praveen Kumar from the attack for repeatedly running down the middle of the pitch into the protected area,” Harper told a website.
“I recall MS suggesting I should have been more lenient to the newcomer, but Praveen had already played in 52 ODIs before his first Test so he knew the Laws. I have a very good memory and recall MS responding to me when I informed him that the bowler was banned for the rest of the innings,” Harper added.
Interestingly, Kumar was not the first Indian to be banned by the Aussie for running on the protected area of the pitch. Harper had handed the same sanction to Ashish Nehra for the same offence during India’s tour of Zimbabwe in 2000.
Harper believed even though Dhoni was not part of then Indian team, he was aware of former ICC umpire's decision.
“’We’ve had trouble with you before, Harper,’ were Dhoni’s exact words. I laughed aloud heartily as I wandered away to square-leg which probably wasn’t a respectful response on my behalf,” Harper stressed.
“Maybe MS knew that Praveen Kumar was only the second Indian bowler to be banned in a Test match for repeatedly running into the protected area. Maybe MS knew that the first Indian bowler to be banned had been Ashish Nehra in a Test in Bulawayo in 2000. Maybe MS knew the name of the umpire who had taken that rare action.”
After India won the Kingston Test match by 63 runs, Dhoni during his post-match conference took a dig at Harper saying that, “If the correct decisions were made the game would have finished much earlier and I would have been in the hotel by now.” And Harper felt MSD was wrong in targeting him and the Ranchi based cricketer was maybe trying to intimidate him.
“After the Test was won by India, MS was reported to have said to the media assembled that the players would have been back in their hotel rooms earlier if the umpires had made the correct decisions,” Harper said. “It’s true... but they would have been back earlier if the Indian fieldsmen had taken their catches as well. Sometimes I wished I could have attended those post-match press conferences on a regular basis in order to set the record straight.”
Harper, who was supposed to officiate in the remaining two matches, quit umpiring prematurely, ending his career on 96 Tests. The Australian stressed that he was not happy with ICC's decision not to take any action against the Indian for his remark.
“It did turn out to be my final Test, but my contract was due to expire two weeks later after the third Test in Dominica so the end was close, regardless of any comments by MS Dhoni or anyone else,” Harper added.
“I accepted that I had made two incorrect decisions during the match and some other moments could not be determined with the available technology. I didn’t have a clean sheet and that always disappointed me when it happened, but my decision-making statistics in Tests with India were second to none at the time.”
