Brasa to lodge protest

CHENNAI: Chennai Cheetahs’ first home fixture has had its share of drama, which didn’t go lightly with coach Jose Brasa, and rightly so, as Marines had 12 players on the field at one passage of the second quarter.

As per norms, the umpire should have green-carded the skipper, who was apparently their goalkeeper Adrian D’Souza, though Marines later struck out his name and ticked Shashi Topno’s. The umpire, as per the instruction of the technical committee, halted the game and rushed towards D’Souza and seemed to motion him the card.

However, D’Souza and the Mumbai contingent protested and finally the umpire overturned the decision. This had far-reaching consequences as Adrian D’Souza not only made a clutch of impressive saves but also deprived the Cheetahs off numerical advantage at a critical phase of the match when they were just a goal down.

Cheetahs naturally felt aggrieved. Consequently, Brasa was quite agitated at the press conference. “The rule book says the captain should be suspended, but that didn’t happen and in the end that made a huge difference. That was ridiculous. And how can they change the captain midway through the match? The first list has clearly stated Adrian as the skipper and then in the final score-sheet they have ticked somebody else’s name. We have planned to file a written protest to the technical delegation,” he fumed.

Marines coach Ashish Ballal blamed the technical committee for not spotting this anomaly. “True we also have to take some blame for our oversight, but so many substitutions are made and we can’t keep counting the number of players on the field. Hence, this can happen sometimes. But the technical committee should have spotted this earlier for it is their responsibility. And our skipper wasn’t Adrian but Shashi Topno,” he clarified.