David Richardson, the ICC's chief executive, has termed ICC president Mustafa Kamal's criticism of the umpires in the second World Cup quarter-final "unfortunate". Kamal criticised the on-field umpires' decision to call a no-ball after Rohit Sharma was caught off a full-toss during the game against Bangladesh in Melbourne on Thursday.
"The ICC has noted Mr Mustafa Kamal's comments, which are very unfortunate but made in his personal capacity," Richardson said in an ICC statement. "As an ICC president, he should have been more considerate in his criticism of ICC match officials, whose integrity cannot be questioned."The no-ball decision was a 50-50 call. The spirit of the game dictates that the umpire's decision is final and must be respected."
Kamal led the angry response from Bangladesh after the match and had said he wanted the ICC to investigate the matter to see if the decision was "deliberate or not." He also clarified he was speaking as a fan and not as the ICC president.
"There was no quality in the umpiring," Kamal had said on Thursday. "It seemed as if they had gone into the match with something in mind. I am speaking as a fan, not as the ICC president. The ICC will see if this was done deliberately. Everything is on record. The ICC has to investigate and inquire the issue to see if there's anything to it."
Richardson replied in his comments: "Any suggestion that the match officials had 'an agenda' or did anything other than perform to the best of their ability are baseless and are refuted in the strongest possible terms."
The incident happened in the 40th over of India's innings when Rohit pulled a Rubel Hossain full-toss from waist-height and was caught at deep midwicket, but the umpires - Aleem Dar and Ian Gould - called it a no-ball, even though the ball was on its way down.