5 Controversies of the 1900s which Changed Cricket Forever

#3 Umpire vs. The Captain: Shakoor Rana vs. Mike Gatting

Mike Gatting jabbing his fingers at Pakistani umpire Shakoor Rana; Image Credits: Graham Morris

The Incident

Eddie Hemmings was delivering the final over of Day 2 of the second test match of England's 1987 Tour of Pakistan. On the 4th ball, the square-leg umpire Shakoor Rana yelled "Stop, Stop" and his counterpart, Khizhar Khan declared the ball a dead ball.

English captain Mike Gatting enquired and Rana said: "You're waving your hand. That's cheating." While Hemming was delivering the ball, Gatting waved and asked his long-leg fielder to move a bit back as he came closer than where he wanted him to be.

Rana termed this as an attempt to change the field after the batsman is ready. And was heard saying "You are a f***ing cheat". Gatting responded and went straight up to Rana, and the two exchanged inappropriate remarks.

Day 3's play never started as Rana decided to not resume before Mike Gatting gives him a written apology. The foreign offices of the two nations were involved to reach a solution to the deadlock.

Mike Gatting, eventually handed a written apology right before the start of play on Day 4. The match was drawn and England would end up on the losing side in the series after the third test.

The Impact

The series saw a flurry of wrong and biased umpiring decisions and the cricketing ties between the two nations worsened. England didn't tour Pakistan for the 13 years to come.

More importantly, the incident brought onto centerstage the long overdue discussion of neutral umpires. In 1992, the experiment of one neutral umpire in test cricket was started and was adopted completely in 1994. In 2002, both on-field neutral umpires became mandatory in Test Cricket.

A 2014 study which involved 1000 Test matches played between 1986 and 2012 claimed that with LBWs the perceived bias has disappeared with neutral umpires.