Umpire Benson retires from international cricket: Report

London, Dec 6 : English umpire Mark Benson has reportedly retired from international cricket with immediate effect after he stood down from the ongoing second Test between Australia and the West Indies in Adelaide under mysterious circumstances.

Benson left the Tes midway but the ICC said the Briton was too ill to stand, not just in this Test but for the rest of the series.

However, there are suggestions Benson was upset at his treatment on the first day when a number of his decisions were challenged under the controversial Umpire review system, The Sunday Times reported.

Benson did not go to hospital but boarded a flight out of Australia. He is thought to be on his way to Britain, though he also owns a home in Florida.

The first decision by Benson which caused difficulty was an Australian appeal for caught behind against West Indies' Shivnarine Chanderpaul.

The left-hander was on 38 and was given not out by Benson, a verdict that was upheld by Asad Rauf, the TV official.

This led to a long-running inquisition by Ponting, who made several demands of match officials during the day for the reasons behind the not-out verdict.

Ponting later said, 'The new system was meant to stop this sort of thing happening but it didn't.' It is understood that Benson was upset when Chanderpaul was later given out caught behind for 62 after Australia had again asked for a referral.

Benson had given Chanderpaul not out but Rauf overturned his decision, although the evidence for doing this was unclear.

Replays provided little evidence to suggest Chanderpaul's bat had made contact with ball, with any noise detected appearing to be caused by bat hitting pad, but the Pakistani official gave Chanderpaul out anyway.

The referral system was only recently formally agreed after a series of controversial trials, although some countries are still dragging their heels as they haggle with broadcasters over who pays for the extra technology.

International Cricket Council (ICC) general manager David Richardson said he had no idea about Benson's retirement.

'Vintcent van der Bijl, our umpires manager, has been speaking to him but I know Mark has a problem with his heart.

He was anxious about it. It was worrying him,' Richardson said.

If Benson has quit it will be the second big umpiring storm to hit the ICC in three years. Darrell Hair stood down after ruling that Pakistan had forfeited a Test at The Oval in 2006.

Hair was subsequently reinstated to the international panel after taking the ICC to an employment tribunal.

--UNI