County scene erupts over 'shocking' stumping drama

Hampshire wicketkeeper Lewis McManus has come under severe scrutiny following his controversial stumping in their County Championship victory over Leicestershire on Sunday.

With Leicestershire 1-59 and trying to stave off an innings defeat, their opener Hassan Azad was beaten outside off stump by left-arm spinner Liam Dawson.

Hampshire immediately appealed for the catch, with McManus raising his right hand – which was holding the ball – in the air. While doing so, he flicked off the bails with his left glove.

Azad was out of his ground and promptly given out, stumped, despite the ball being in McManus's other hand.

Hampshire went on to win by an innings early on day four, but the outcome was overshadowed by the controversy, which Leicestershire head coach Paul Nixon labelled a "shocking incident".

"We have expressed our very strong views on this shocking incident to the match referee and we trust that an extremely strong stance will be taken to keep the integrity of our game," Nixon told Wisden, while the club also released a statement from their CEO Sean Jarvis: "For everyone at Leicestershire, the behaviour displayed by Hampshire was extremely disappointing and has no place in the game," it read.

"I have written to the ECB following the completion of this fixture to express the concerns and disappointment of what happened. I hope we can resolve this matter quickly and move on from the incident."

Hampshire captain James Vince, who in scoring a remarkable 231 from 220 balls became just the third batsman after David Hussey and Kevin Pietersen to score two County Championship double-hundreds at a strike-rate exceeding 100, went into bat for his under-fire teammate.