Dec. 30: South African cricketers have alleged that they spotted umpire Steve Davis drunk on the eve of India’s series-levelling Durban Test and are now mulling lodging a complaint against the Australian who made two howlers during the second Test.
The Proteas reportedly saw the 58-year-old umpire “in a drunken condition” at the Umhlanga hotel where both teams and match officials had stayed during the Durban Test.
Sources in the Proteas camp, told the Afrikaans daily Beeld that Davis was regularly seen in a particular bar over the past week. They said he was also seen stumbling into the Sandton hotel in the early hours of the morning during the first Test in Centurion last week.
Proteas team manager, Mohammed Moosajee, referred the daily’s query to Vincent van der Bijl, head of the ICC referees Panel, who said he was aware of the “stunning” allegations but declined to comment on whether Davis would face any disciplinary action. “There are established procedures to be followed and (any action) can only occur as soon as we receive an official complaint,” Van der Bijl said.
Davis, along with his Pakistani colleague, Asad Rauf, committed quite a few umpiring blunders during the second Test, with lbw decisions involving de Villiers and Mark Boucher being the crucial ones.
During India’s second innings, Davis turned down a confident lbw shout from the South Africans off Dale Steyn’s bowling but TV replays later showed that he was wrong. If that was not enough, during South Africa’s chase of 303 runs, the Australian came up with another shocker and gave Boucher out lbw to Zaheer but replays showed the ball was missing off stump.