da betsson： Clive Lloyd has said that the match referee needs to have a greater role in the future in order to avoidincidents like Ovalgate
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan10-Oct-2006
‘I’m constantly in touch with the umpires and need to knock them on the head sometimes’ says Clive Lloyd explaining the duties of a match referee © Getty Images
Clive Lloyd, the legendary former West Indian captain, has said that the matchreferee needs to have a greater role in the future in order to avoidincidents like Ovalgate. Lloyd, who’s acted as a matchreferee in 53 Tests, added that with a bit more “common sense” theincident, that transpired in the final Test between Pakistan and Englandat The Oval, could have been resolved more amicably.”The referee does play an important part in cricket and good sense, orwhat you call common sense, must always prevail,” said Lloyd, who’scurrently accompanying the West Indian team in an advisory role. “I’mconstantly in touch with the umpires about issues and need to knock them on the headsometimes. The referee does have a great part to play and probably willplay a greater part in the future to avoid such incidents.”Lloyd, who was recently appointed the chairman of the Cricket Committee ofthe West Indies Cricket Board, will be lending active support to the team and its management in the current tour. He was pleased with WestIndies’ recent performance in one-dayers but added they need to improvefar more as far as Test cricket was concerned. “We need our fast bowlersto be more consistent,” he added when quizzed about the exact reason forWest Indies’ poor showing in Tests. “They are still learning their tradeand need to be far more consistent.”Starting an academy is also important,” he continued, “considering thatseveral young players are moving towards other sports. One needs toharness the talent at the junior levels and get our domestic cricket on aproper footing. Otherwise several talented cricketers will move to othersports like football and basketball. We already have the Reggae Boys[Jamaica football side] and the Soca Warriors [Trinidad & Tobago footballteam] so we need to watch out.”