Simon Katich calls for better umpiring in IPL

Kolkata Knight Riders assistant coach Simon Katich became the latest to join the bandwagon of coaches and players, who feel that standard of umpiring in the current season has left a lot to be desired.

Though Katich was not forthcoming, he pointed out the contentious decision which went in favour of Delhi Capitals' Shikhar Dhawan in Friday's match against KKR.

The southpaw, who survived a review on 11, went on to seal the match for the Capitals with an unbeaten 97.

"I don't want to get into trouble. I will give a stock standard answer: It's a tough job. Obviously last night, there was a contentious one (Dhawan) and unfortunately it didn't go away," Katich in a roundabout manner said what he intended to.

 

The ongoing edition of the IPL has had quite a few umpiring controversies so far leading to top players like Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Virat Kohli coming down heavily on the standard of umpiring.

While Dhoni's latest conduct has not been above board, Katich was all praise for his leadership skills and ability to take the game deep.

"It will be interesting to see what the master in Dhoni goes with tomorrow. He seems to pull the right strings at the right time. He is so well prepared. There's a lot of thought put into the team. He's very clever in the way he uses his bowlers, his field positions," said Dhoni.

"We got completely outplayed in Chennai. But we feel our team suits our wicket as well with the quality spinners we've got. Unfortunately, we didn't adapt to the conditions in Chennai. We thought it was a 180-wicket and it took us probably four overs to realise that and the game was done and dusted."

The Australian cited the CSK skipper's decision to drop Harbhajan Singh in favour of left-arm spinner Mitchell Santner against Rajasthan Royals. The New Zealander did well with the bowl as well as sealed the match for CSK with a six off the final delivery.

"He did not play his in-form bowler Harbhajan because they (RR) had five right handers in top order. He brought in Santner, who did a good job for them. He's very clever in the way he goes about it and we probably need to take a leaf out of that book," Katich said.