International Cricket Council chief executive Malcolm Speed has apologised
for the farcical end to Saturday's World Cup final but ruled out blacklisting
the erring officials.
"It was an unnecessary error, a fundamental error. It was made under difficult
circumstances at the end of the match.
"It was unfortunate, a very sad way to finish the World
Cup. I hope we can recall the great day's cricket we had before this very unfortunate
ending," Speed told reporters at the Kensington Oval on Sunday.
Flanked by ICC general manager David Richardson,
Speed said, "David and I are here today on behalf of ICC to say to the
wider stakeholders of the game that we too are very sorry this incident occurred
at the end of what, on any view, had been an outstanding day of cricket."
In the rain-marred final, on-field umpires Steve Bucknor, standing in his record
fifth World Cup final, and Aleem Dar overlooked the fact that once 20
overs had been bowled in both the innings, a result should have been declared
under the Duckworth Lewis method.
Instead, they made the teams return to the field to play another three overs
in semi-darkness at the end of which Australia won the match beating
Sri Lanka by 53 runs.
Despite the embarrassing goof-up, Speed, however, ruled out
an immediate censure for the playing-control unit, which also included third
umpire Rudy Koertzen, reserve official Billy Bowden and match
referee Jeff Crowe.
"They certainly do have a future in the game. We are not
going to over-react to this. The umpires and Jeff Crowe, they had earned the
right to umpire in the World Cup Final because they are outstanding umpires
and an outstanding referee.
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