Mumbai: Mumbai Magicians coach Ric Charlesworth has termed ridiculous the subtle punishment to suspend Punjab Warriors' manager for a match for fielding 12 players in Sunday's Hockey India League game.
The Warriors had played with 12 men for the last five minutes of the final quarter against Mumbai, prompting the home side to lodge a complaint, which resulted in a suspension for Jagbir Singh (Punjab Warriors manager) for one game.
"This is like slapping somebody with wet tissue. It is ridiculous. In my opinion, in all the competition we play in our country, if you have 12 fielders in the game, then you don't win the match. The game was close and for five minutes and not for a few seconds, they had 12 men," Charlesworth said on Monday after his side's defeat to Delhi Waveriders.
"I find that extraordinary. You don't win points when you do that. They had an extra player for five minutes. And the penalty means that this is a tactic that you can use, I imagine now.
"I don't think there is precedent, because the people on the bench should be doing this. The fact that it happened for so long, is very unusual," the Aussie added at a press conference.
The former India coach further said that the umpiring in yesterday's game against Delhi Waveriders was not of great quality.
"At the beginning of last quarter, they won a corner. The ball hit Sandy (Sandeep Singh) above the knee and they got another corner, they scored that. They scored it after missing a stop. It was frustrating.
"In international hockey if you get a referral, the game is back at 4 all. In the first half, we hit the foot twice in the circle and the umpire didn't see it. The umpiring is sub-standard. That is the problem. We are hoping it will work for us eventually," he said.
Delhi Waveriders had beaten the home side 6-4.
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