London: A criticism-stung Rudi Koertzen Wednesday hit back at the cricketers who refuse to walk after nicking the ball and said it is because of these “cheating” batsmen that umpiring has become such a difficult job.

Koertzen and the West Indian Billy Doctrove incurred the media wrath because of their inconsistency in referring controversial decisions to the third umpire during the Lord’s Test which England won.

“It is a shame that you have to do it that way. The players will stand there, nick the ball and wait for the umpire to make a decision. For me, that’s cheating,” Koertzon told a cricket website.

The umpiring duo had referred Australian Nathan Hauritz’s claimed catch of Ravi Bopara to the third umpire but later refused to send Andrew Strauss’s controversial catch of Phillip Hughes upstairs.

“Why don’t you get off the field and make it easy for the game? There would be more pleasure in the game. I know that Ponting would say, ‘Boys, let’s try (accepting the umpires word)’,” he said.

“I’ve been in those meetings when he said, ‘Let’s try it,’ and then you get to the second day in a Test match and a guy claims a catch and ten minutes later you hear, ‘The ball didn’t carry,’ and then the argument starts again. Let’s use the technology when it’s there,” he revealed.

Koertzen defended his decision of not referring the catch to the third umpire. “So long as one of the umpires are sure that the ball has carried, the decision will stay on the field. That’s a protocol from the ICC,” he said. (AGENICES)