Bengaluru, March 11: The Herald, Zimbabwe's largest daily, recently lashed out at Irish player John Mooney and the umpires of the ongoing World Cup in Australia and New Zealand for conspiring against the African team and ensuring their exit from the tournament.

World Cup Special

Mooney, who was called a "recovering alcoholic" by the newspaper, was accused of taking a controversial catch at the boundary to dismiss set batsman Sean Williams to derail Zimbabwe from achieving a score of 332 to remain alive in the tournament.

Television footage showed Mooney's leg had touched the boundary rope while he caught Williams's catch at the match in Hobart. Zimbabwe lost the match by just five runs and found themselves dumped out of the World Cup.

Zimbabwean wicket-keeper Brendan Taylor, who was the stand-in captain in the match against Ireland, apologised to Ireland and Mooney for the news report that he called "unacceptable".

The Herald report had also criticised the umpiring over the controversial not out decision against West Indian batsman Chris Gayle who slammed a match-winning 215 against Zimbabwe at Canberra and also allegedly ignoring no balls bowled by Pakistani fast bowler Mohammad Irfan. Pakistan defeated Zimbabwe by 20 runs in a close match played at Brisbane.

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