England Under-19 batter Hamza Shaikh was controversially ruled out obstructing the field during their Super Six match against Zimbabwe at the ICC U-19 Men's Cricket World Cup 2024 in Potchefstroom on Sunday, February 4. The 17-year-old had picked up a stationary ball during the 17th over of the English innings and upon appeal and a referral, deemed to be out by third umpire Nigel Duguid. (More Cricket News)
Shaikh had defended a delivery by Zimbabwe left-arm spinner Ryan Simbi near his feet. The wicketkeeper Ryan Kamwemba approached the pitch to collect the ball, but before Kamwemba got there, Shaikh bent down and handed it over to the keeper.
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The bowler and keeper both led an appeal for obstructing the field and on-field umpires Donovan Koch and Masudur Rahman referred it to the third umpire Duguid, who adjudged a puzzled Shaikh to be out. You can watch the video below.
The dismissal would have earlier been called 'handling the ball', but MCC amended the laws in 2017 to combine it with obstructing the field, saying that they were essentially the same thing.
The contentious decision raised many an eyebrow, with English wicketkeeper Sam Billings retweeting the video with a one-word comment of "Wow".
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Legendary England seamer Stuart Broad too was unhappy with the call. Broad took to social media platform X (formerly Twitter) and wrote: "Oh get a grip. He’s passing a stationary ball back to the fielder? Doing him a favour! Cant give that out (sic)".
Though Shaikh had to walk back after scoring just one run, England won the match by a whopping 146 runs. Both teams, however, did not make the cut for the semi-finals as Australia and South Africa were the top two teams from Group 2.
