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5 instances when captains argued with umpires

England captain Alastair Cook during an argument with the umpires 

In the game of cricket, umpires have the highest authority to judge all the on-field aspects of the game. According to the laws of cricket, umpires can make their decisions and the players have to accept it without any question.

However, umpires are also human beings and they also make errors but that is to be expected. While in most cases a controversial umpiring decision gets ignored by the players on the field, sometimes it does lead to heated exchanges. 

The captain of a team has the responsibility to communicate with the umpires whenever an unprecedented situation arises on the field but there are also many instances where a captain lost his cool and got involved in an argument with the officials.

Here are five of the most famous captain-umpire spats.   

Mike Gatting in 1987

Shakoor Rana (left) and Mike Gatting with the other match officials after the infamous incident

During the second Test match between Pakistan and England in Faisalabad in December 1987, England captain Mike Gatting got involved with one of the ugliest alterations in the history of the game with Pakistani umpire Shakoor Rana.

In the second day of the Faisalabad Test, Pakistan were struggling at 106 for the loss of five wickets in response to England’s 292. With three balls to go in the day’s play, The England captain brought David Capel to deep square-leg to prevent a single.

According to Gatting he had informed the batsman about the fielding change but Rana, who was standing at square-leg, stopped the play and accused Gatting of cheating. The Englishman was evidently furious and confronted the equally irritated umpire.

Both wagged their fingers ominously at each other and exchanged a spate of foul words. A lot of their conversation was transmitted worldwide through the stump microphones. This incident remains one of the ugliest alterations between a captain and an umpire in the history of cricket.

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