Cricket experts slam ICC over tied Test goof-up
A tied Test match is a very rare phenomenon. So rare, in fact, that cricket has only seen two of them in its 139-year existence. The first, between Australia and West Indies in Brisbane, 1960, and the second, between India and West Indies, 26 years later, in Chennai.
On this day, in 1960, a mighty 56 years ago, Australia and West Indies completed day 5 of a highly tense Test that resulted in the first tied match ever.
It was only fitting that ICC, the custodians of the game, took to Twitter to post about the Test –
Except, they were slightly lax in their work, and in fact, posted a match from another game altogether.
They didn’t account for the incredible knowledge of cricket aficionados around the globe. Their error was first pointed out by Mohandas Menon, a prominent statistician –
It only became worse when Harsha Bhogle joined in, adding another reliable voice to the issue –
Jarrod Kimber, a cricket writer, who also directed and wrote the famous cricket movie ‘Death Of A Gentleman’ that exposed corruption in the ICC, was surely never going to miss out on the fun –
Luckily someone took to Twitter to clarify whether this was indeed a legitimate picture, and it wasn’t –
His thoughts were further echoed –
This certainly turned out to be rather embarrassing for the ICC.
In the Test match that ended tied, West Indies batted first and scored 453 runs before the hosts Australia scored 505 runs in response to secure a 52 run lead. The Windies added another 284 runs to set a target of 233 runs for the Australians.
The match went to the final over of the day, with the Aussies needing 6 to win from the 8-ball over. The Aussies would go on to lose 3 wickets in a chaotic over, and, after losing their last wicket on the penultimate ball of the match, the scores were tied. And the match too.