Before he could do so, Mehidy swooped on the ball and flicked it onto the stumps with Agha out of his ground.
In a statement released on Monday, the MCC, the custodians of the Laws of the game, said the umpires were right to rule Agha out, and that the batter had put himself at risk of being out obstructing the ball by attempting to pick it up.
“Under Laws, there is little that either umpire could have done differently,” the statement said. “The non-striker was clearly out of his ground when the wicket was broken, and the ball was in play. That is out.
“It is also worth pointing out that the non-striker had left his ground when the ball was in play and had just started to attempt to regain his ground when he collided with Mehidy. Furthermore, no batter should attempt to pick the ball up without the consent of the fielding side, and had he done so, he would have been at risk of an Obstructing the field dismissal. In retrospect, he would have been better using that time to attempt to regain his ground.”
“There have been some suggestions that the ball should have been treated as Dead. That is not viable under the Laws; the ball does not become dead when players collide – if it did, that would incentivise players to seek out collisions when the situation was advantageous. There was no question of a serious injury, so there could be no call of Dead ball for that. It could not have been clear to the umpire that all the players ceased to consider the ball to be in play, since Mehidy clearly believed it was live, even if Agha did not. And it cannot have been finally settled in the hands of the bowler or wicket-keeper, since it was on the ground.
“Under the new Laws, which will come into effect in October, an umpire will be able to determine that the ball is finally settled if it is stationary on the ground. However, it is hard to make an argument that the ball is finally settled if the nearest fielder to it is attempting to run the non-striker out, with that non-striker out of their ground.
“There is no case, therefore, to be made that this was Not out under Law, nor that the Law could be re-written to somehow make a situation like this Not out.”
On the Spirit-of-Cricket point, the MCC said it was up to the fielding team to make that call as they saw fit.
“Yet many people have expressed sympathy for Agha and suggested that this dismissal was against the Spirit of Cricket.
“It certainly would have been possible for Mehidy, as Bangladesh captain, to withdraw his appeal. Agha clearly thought the ball was dead and was attempting to assist the fielding side after an unintentional collision which made it harder for him to regain his ground. The Laws allow a withdrawal for incidents where the batter is out in Law, but the fielding side feels that it would be better, within the Spirit of Cricket, to allow them to continue.”
