Gilchrist brushes aside Preity Zinta's argument with umpires

Kings XI Punjab captain Adam Gilchrist on Thursday said that he did not hear any adverse comments from the umpires on his team owner Preity Zinta who apparently had an exchange of words with them during the IPL match against Kolkata Knight Riders here.

Zinta was seen reacting vigorously during the strategic time out period to the decision of Shaun Marsh being given out but Gilchrist said that she might not have violated any rules.

KXIP batsman Marsh was ruled out in a controversial manner in the 14th over when he edged a Brett Lee delivery to KKR wicketkeeper Manvinder Bisla who nodded that he had taken the catch and the on-field umpire ruled Marsh out even though TV replays suggested there was a doubt.

Asked if there had been any violation of rules on Zinta's part, Gilchrist said, "For that you have to ask match referee or the umpire. I don't know if she had any word with any umpire or not. I don't know what exchanges happened there on the sidelines.

"But, I have not heard any negative comment from either the match referee or the umpire. I can only assume that nothing has been transgressed there."

Gilchrist said he told Zinta, also a Bollywood actor, that he would handle the situation and she happily complied.

"I was on the sidelines and asked her if she would allow me to control the situation and she happily did. She just went straight back and sat down. She is a passionate supporter, a team co-owner and a fan of this game. I do not know what she was going to say to me when I told her that I will handle this after which she respected that and sat down," Gilchrist said.

Gilchrist had come off the field for most of KXIP's innings after pulling a hamstring and was watching the match from the sidelines.

He said that going by the replays of the catch, even he was not convinced and thought "there was a huge element of doubt there".

"A lot of uncertainty about whether the ball carried, but whatever the opinion was I just wanted to make sure that Preity, the team and the rest of the support crew were simply abiding by the umpire's decision, who had given Shaun out.

"Shaun asked the wicketkeeper who said yes he caught it, so Shaun walked off. He had taken the wicketkeeper's word on it. He (Bisla) was certain that he caught it. Once the decision is made, you've got to abide by it and once I explained that to Preity she sat down and continued to watch the game," he said.

"We accept that decision. We all get bad decisions and we have to get on with that. We have seen already a controversy in this tournament on something like that happen, which was not a pretty incident," said Gilchrist, who is also the coach and wicketkeeper of the Punjab team and a veteran of 96 Tests and 287 ODIs.

About referring the decision to the TV replays, he said, "It's frustrating given that technology, it is open to interpretation whether the ball carried or not. But fact of the matter is the umpire had given him out."