New Delhi: For a tournament like the Indian Premier League (IPL), which sets the highest standards in every aspect, officiating in the ongoing season has been sub-standard, to say the least. The world’s biggest cricket league, despite having all the latest technologies at its disposal, has been rocked by umpiring howlers.
The tournament began with an umpiring controversy when Royal Challenger Bengaluru’s Phil Salt caught Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) batter Heinrich Klassen in controversial circumstances on the boundary rope. A fortnight later, the trend of umpiring errors continued in the latest match of the tournament in Game 15 between Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) at the Eden Gardens on Thursday.
Recurring umpiring howlers: A worrying trend
IPL 2026 attracted more negative headlines because of poor officiating when KKR opening batter Finn Allen lost his wicket due to a poor decision from third umpire KN Anantha Padmanabhan. The Kiwi opener was given out by the TV Umpire despite LSG spinner Digvesh Rathi appearing to touch the boundary rope while taking the catch at deep third man.
🚨 POOR UMPIRING CONTINUES IN IPL
Digvesh Rathi today claimed Finn Allen’s catch at the boundary in KKR vs LSG match.
However, replays show Digvesh’s feet touched the boundary cushion while holding the ball.
Finn was adjudicated out while it was a SIX pic.twitter.com/sXrfGfbQB9
— Brutal Truth (@sarkarstix) April 9, 2026
Controversy erupted in the second over of the match when Allen top-edged the fourth ball of Prince Yadav’s over. The ball flew towards the third-man boundary, where Digvesh initially misjudged the catch and advanced in from the boundary instead of keeping still.
Realising his misjudgement, he quickly ran back towards the rope to take the catch. The initial reaction of the fielders and the on-field umpire appeared to be a normal reaction, thinking it was a clean catch. However, close proximity of Digvesh to the boundary rope prompted the umpires to check the legality of the catch with the TV umpire.
Replays showed Digvesh taking a well-judged catch, but while completing it, he appeared to step on the boundary rope in the process.
However, the third umpire, instead of looking at multiple replays and all the different angles to ensure no room is left for any error, took the decision hastily and ruled Allen out after spending very little time reviewing the incident.
What would have been a six ended up as a dot ball and a wicket for KKR, who lost the match on the final ball of the match as LSG chased down the 182-run target thanks to an unbeaten fifty by Mukul Choudhary.
Credibility crisis: How poor officiating is harming IPL’s reputation
The controversial decision sparked a massive controversy as fans slammed the officiating in IPL 2026.
At a time when umpires take their own sweet time to review a wide and a no-ball, shouldn’t an important decision like a dismissal merit more checking?
Something similar had happened in the IPL 2026 opener between RCB and SRH when Salt took Klassen’s catch and went to ground extremely close to the rope. While the decision was sent upstairs for review, the umpire didn’t use the more relevant angle to make the decision.
Without thorough checking, the TV umpire ruled the decision in favour of the fielding team despite inconclusive evidence.
Such inconsistencies in decision-making indicate a worrying trend, one which is undermining the credibility and tarnishing the reputation of the world’s richest and biggest cricket league.