ICC Punishes WI Coach Darren Sammy For Criticising 3rd Umpire Adrian Holdstock
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The ICC has reprimanded West Indies coach Darren Sammy for criticizing umpire Adrian Holdstock during the 2025 Test against Australia.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) has reprimanded West Indies head coach Darren Sammy for his comments criticising umpire Adrian Holdstock for his supposed mistakes in the team's first 2025 Test against Australia in Barbados. He has been fined 15% of his match fee and handed one demerit point for the level-one offence — his first in a 24-month period. The former captain admitted the offence and accepted the sanction.
Sammy was found to have violated Article 2.7 of the ICC Code of Conduct.
The rule states: 'Without limitation, Players and Player Support Personnel will breach Article 2.7 if they publicly criticise the Match Officials or denigrate a Player or team against which they have played in relation to incidents which occurred in an International Match. When assessing the seriousness of the breach, without limitation, the context within which the comments have been made and the gravity of the offending comments must be taken into account."
The Test match was embroiled in controversy throughout as several decisions were referred to the South African TV umpire Holdstock. The West Indies were particularly unhappy with two of them — Shai Hope being given out caught behind despite replays showing that the ball brushed the ground while being in wicketkeeper Alex Carey's hands and Roston Chase's LBW against Pat Cummins.
Both incidents happened in the hosts' first innings of the Test. West Indies felt Hope and Chase's dismissals at 48 and 44 respectively, altered the result of the match, which they ended up losing by 159 runs.
Sammy had approached match referee Javagal Srinath after the second day over these decisions and came into the press conference with questions on Holdstock.
'Yeah, look, you don't want to get yourself in a situation where you're wondering about certain umpires. Is there something against this team?" Sammy asked. 'But when you see decision after decision, then it raises the question. I know he's here for the series. You don't want to go in a Test match having that doubt. So I want to have that conversation as to the process… so we could be all clear. Because, at the end of the day, you don't want to be going into a Test match not trusting the umpires. And that's not what our team is about. So we're just looking for some clarity as to the decisions," he added.
After the match, Chase also spoke to the media and raised that unlike players, umpires and officials don't face any penalties for their mistakes.
First Published:
June 29, 2025, 08:15 IST
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