Over fine waived

Press, 10 February 1983, Page 30

Over fine waived

NZPA Sydney i I Australia was spared a mandatory fine of $6OO after ! failing to complete 50 overs i in required time. ! The tournment referee, Mr I Alan Crompton, decided to waive the fine on technical l grounds after consulting urn- . pires and crediting the Aus- 1 tralians with a short time : delay. < Australia was required to ’ complete its allotted overs , by 6 p.m. But when the umpires called the players | from the field at that time < the final ball of the forty- < ninth over had just been i bowled. < Mr Crompton is the official required to impose < over rate fines and to judge ;

on appeals against such penalties. “At the end of the innings. I had calculated that a time' credit of one minute 25 seconds existed in Australia’s favour,” he said. “Some time was lost when the New Zealand batsman, John Wright, had to be treated for injury and, at the same time, I could find no evidence of deliberate timewasting on the part of the Australians. “I conferred with the umpires and they had already calculated that about 30 seconds playing time remained when they called an end to the innings. “For those reasons I decided that no fine should be applicable in this case.”