Sydney Test Fiasco : Umpiring Standards
Hi BCCI,
Whilst I admit the standard of umpiring was poor, it seems some players and officials have conveniently overlooked the poor decisions which have gone India's way. For example, Michael Clarke had Tendulkar PLUMB LBW in the 1st innings when he was 30, and the little master went on to score his 3rd century at SCG and his 79th International Century Overall. I haven't heard that mentioned when people have complained about the apparent bias towards Australia. Dont you think, This represents poor journalism on the part of the media and selective memories on the part of the complaining Indian players and officials. You take the good with the bad and nobody likes a whinging loser.
Iam certain you will understand, Umpires have got a pretty tough job, some of the 50/50 decisions did go Australia's way. But to say that it cost India the game is a cop out. They lost the game due to not being as good as their opposition. Their fielding(courtsey Yuvraj), their running between wickets(Courtsey Fab 4), and their negative bowling(Bajji) was not as good as Australia. Both teams got rough decisions over the whole match. To simply point at a few decisions and say they decided the match is both naive and pointless. When you appeal for a wicket it is because you think it is out, not because you know it is. If the umpire believes the batsman is out, then he gives him out, based on the evidence HE has before HIM, not all this other crap the “expert” commentators prattle on with. Anil Kumble himself, has over 150 dismissals with bat-pad catches etc, and he will be the first one to put his hand up and admit he got some lucky ones as well. !!
On the umpiring - I’ve heard(have been hearing) lots of people saying “we need to improve the standard”, but not one suggested including you,BCCI, on how to actually go about it. Do we get rid of the older ones? Do we get more stringent umpire coaching in place? Do we search the junior ranks for likely candidates? I do think there’s been a decline in the standard, but don't you think it’s been exaggerated by the intense television scrutiny. When I last checked the list of elite umpiring list, I found ONLY two umpires were from Sub Continent and both are from Pakistan :-)
How quickly the team, have forgotten all the terrible decisions Australia recieved in their last couple of test match series in India !! Perhaps cast your minds back to the Eden Garder Test in 2001. Australia would not have lost, had the umpiring decisions not went in favour of India in the second innings. The irony is , Aussies lost when then need to bat out around 70 odd overs which is similar to the one which the Indians failed to do at SCG. Australia never publicly went whinging about the umpiring and always getting on with the task at hand. Australia never complained when Michael Kasprowicz 'gloving' it to Geraint Jones of the bowling of Harmison in Ashes O5 - effectively losing Aus that match and eventually the Ashes, when replays clearly showed otherwise. !!! They took that on the chin and responded with a 5-Nil White wash when England toured downunder!!
It would be worthwhile to refresh some of the recent past memories !!As for Bucknor, it is easy to forget just how silent the Indian Cricketers were last year when the same umpire did not give Sreesanth out in the fading minutes of the first Test against England. Most commentators believed the bowler was LBW, and had he been given out, the English would have won the Test and the series would have finished one-all. Indians finally were saved by Rain Gods !! They can't save you everytime right !!!
You remains silent about that.
Steve Bucknor got the Rahul Dravid decision horribly wrong, when the bat and ball were definitely in different postal districts. He had a shocker in the match,he certainly looked like a man in need of a long holiday. Agreed !! Don't you honestly feel, cricket faces dark days if one individual,is bullied out by player power. However poor the umpiring may be, However formidable the opposition can be, I still believe no way in the world, you would have allowed the opposition to score 450+ when they had backs to the wall at 130/6. If that is poor, the worse is yet to follow. If your king,queen and jack can't play out the last 12 balls to secure a draw, you have lot of tinkering to do off the field than pointing fingers at the Umpires !! The saving grace was the fact Bucknor is Jamaican, Benson is English and the match referee, Mike Procter, South African. As poorly as they umpired, Thanks Heavens, at least their neutrality could be celebrated by the Team India !!
How come at first place you have decided to accept Bucknor's appointment for the Test Series, which I presume you would have known atleast a month back. If you are hell bent on Bucknor's grudge Vs the Indians, why you didn't oppose then and Iam certain you know that umpires are appointed from Dubai and not from Melbourne. Whilst I admit, there were decisions went against you, Don't you think, you have set a bad-precedence of changing the umpire mid-way? If this conduct is acceptable then we could have, say, the US threaten to withdraw from the China Olympics unless drug charges were withdrawn against a particular athlete. It would really be comical, if you say the axe that swung on Bucknor's head doesn't bear the BCCI's finger print !! It was Mike-Denness before then Clive lloyd and Now Steve Bucknor(and to lesser extent Mike Procter). Iam pretty certain you will back your own mate Javagal Srinath, when any of the opposition team brings the game to dispute by pointing finger on Srinath !!
Can you ask some of the NZ cricketers how they feel about YOU, when you removed them from the Bollywood cricket film, simply because they had signed up to play for their rivals. What are you going to do on the fellow New-Zealander, Billy Bowden !!! What Next? Have you prepared the draft version of your letter asking Billy Bowden to be removed, just in case he perform miserably at Perth. Henceforth, you have lot of tasks to do. Guess you not only have to select the team, but you also have to select the Umpires as well. !!
A glimpse of the future. We can have teams of umpires turn up at each ground. Everytime they make a dud decision then bam - they're out. A Captain of one side can put their finger up and eliminate them. We can 'rankd' the umpires acording to how useful they are for results wanted by the bookmaking fraternity. Are you going to organize a sort of reality TV game where viewers can get in on the umpire axeing as well - if enough viewers want to execute an umpire than whack - he's gone. They can dial in or SMS! Have you thought about this in the upcoming Ranji Season ?
For heaven sake, can you take a lead and do something for the improvement of Umpiring Standards, by devoting time,money and energy instead of over ruling the decisions made from Dubai.
My two Cents:- Wouldn't it be much easier for umpires to not have to rule on no-balls? The technology used for tennis Grand Slams could surely be modified for cricket. Therefore the umpire could focus solely on watching the batsman as the bowler delivers, instead of looking down then up. The technology would beep if there was a no-ball. I guess one problem is this technology would have to be installed on all major cricket grounds, but with all that money coming in to the ICC from media empires surely it could be afforded
Whilst I admit the standard of umpiring was poor, it seems some players and officials have conveniently overlooked the poor decisions which have gone India's way. For example, Michael Clarke had Tendulkar PLUMB LBW in the 1st innings when he was 30, and the little master went on to score his 3rd century at SCG and his 79th International Century Overall. I haven't heard that mentioned when people have complained about the apparent bias towards Australia. Dont you think, This represents poor journalism on the part of the media and selective memories on the part of the complaining Indian players and officials. You take the good with the bad and nobody likes a whinging loser.
Iam certain you will understand, Umpires have got a pretty tough job, some of the 50/50 decisions did go Australia's way. But to say that it cost India the game is a cop out. They lost the game due to not being as good as their opposition. Their fielding(courtsey Yuvraj), their running between wickets(Courtsey Fab 4), and their negative bowling(Bajji) was not as good as Australia. Both teams got rough decisions over the whole match. To simply point at a few decisions and say they decided the match is both naive and pointless. When you appeal for a wicket it is because you think it is out, not because you know it is. If the umpire believes the batsman is out, then he gives him out, based on the evidence HE has before HIM, not all this other crap the “expert” commentators prattle on with. Anil Kumble himself, has over 150 dismissals with bat-pad catches etc, and he will be the first one to put his hand up and admit he got some lucky ones as well. !!
On the umpiring - I’ve heard(have been hearing) lots of people saying “we need to improve the standard”, but not one suggested including you,BCCI, on how to actually go about it. Do we get rid of the older ones? Do we get more stringent umpire coaching in place? Do we search the junior ranks for likely candidates? I do think there’s been a decline in the standard, but don't you think it’s been exaggerated by the intense television scrutiny. When I last checked the list of elite umpiring list, I found ONLY two umpires were from Sub Continent and both are from Pakistan :-)
How quickly the team, have forgotten all the terrible decisions Australia recieved in their last couple of test match series in India !! Perhaps cast your minds back to the Eden Garder Test in 2001. Australia would not have lost, had the umpiring decisions not went in favour of India in the second innings. The irony is , Aussies lost when then need to bat out around 70 odd overs which is similar to the one which the Indians failed to do at SCG. Australia never publicly went whinging about the umpiring and always getting on with the task at hand. Australia never complained when Michael Kasprowicz 'gloving' it to Geraint Jones of the bowling of Harmison in Ashes O5 - effectively losing Aus that match and eventually the Ashes, when replays clearly showed otherwise. !!! They took that on the chin and responded with a 5-Nil White wash when England toured downunder!!
It would be worthwhile to refresh some of the recent past memories !!As for Bucknor, it is easy to forget just how silent the Indian Cricketers were last year when the same umpire did not give Sreesanth out in the fading minutes of the first Test against England. Most commentators believed the bowler was LBW, and had he been given out, the English would have won the Test and the series would have finished one-all. Indians finally were saved by Rain Gods !! They can't save you everytime right !!!
You remains silent about that.
Steve Bucknor got the Rahul Dravid decision horribly wrong, when the bat and ball were definitely in different postal districts. He had a shocker in the match,he certainly looked like a man in need of a long holiday. Agreed !! Don't you honestly feel, cricket faces dark days if one individual,is bullied out by player power. However poor the umpiring may be, However formidable the opposition can be, I still believe no way in the world, you would have allowed the opposition to score 450+ when they had backs to the wall at 130/6. If that is poor, the worse is yet to follow. If your king,queen and jack can't play out the last 12 balls to secure a draw, you have lot of tinkering to do off the field than pointing fingers at the Umpires !! The saving grace was the fact Bucknor is Jamaican, Benson is English and the match referee, Mike Procter, South African. As poorly as they umpired, Thanks Heavens, at least their neutrality could be celebrated by the Team India !!
How come at first place you have decided to accept Bucknor's appointment for the Test Series, which I presume you would have known atleast a month back. If you are hell bent on Bucknor's grudge Vs the Indians, why you didn't oppose then and Iam certain you know that umpires are appointed from Dubai and not from Melbourne. Whilst I admit, there were decisions went against you, Don't you think, you have set a bad-precedence of changing the umpire mid-way? If this conduct is acceptable then we could have, say, the US threaten to withdraw from the China Olympics unless drug charges were withdrawn against a particular athlete. It would really be comical, if you say the axe that swung on Bucknor's head doesn't bear the BCCI's finger print !! It was Mike-Denness before then Clive lloyd and Now Steve Bucknor(and to lesser extent Mike Procter). Iam pretty certain you will back your own mate Javagal Srinath, when any of the opposition team brings the game to dispute by pointing finger on Srinath !!
Can you ask some of the NZ cricketers how they feel about YOU, when you removed them from the Bollywood cricket film, simply because they had signed up to play for their rivals. What are you going to do on the fellow New-Zealander, Billy Bowden !!! What Next? Have you prepared the draft version of your letter asking Billy Bowden to be removed, just in case he perform miserably at Perth. Henceforth, you have lot of tasks to do. Guess you not only have to select the team, but you also have to select the Umpires as well. !!
A glimpse of the future. We can have teams of umpires turn up at each ground. Everytime they make a dud decision then bam - they're out. A Captain of one side can put their finger up and eliminate them. We can 'rankd' the umpires acording to how useful they are for results wanted by the bookmaking fraternity. Are you going to organize a sort of reality TV game where viewers can get in on the umpire axeing as well - if enough viewers want to execute an umpire than whack - he's gone. They can dial in or SMS! Have you thought about this in the upcoming Ranji Season ?
For heaven sake, can you take a lead and do something for the improvement of Umpiring Standards, by devoting time,money and energy instead of over ruling the decisions made from Dubai.
My two Cents:- Wouldn't it be much easier for umpires to not have to rule on no-balls? The technology used for tennis Grand Slams could surely be modified for cricket. Therefore the umpire could focus solely on watching the batsman as the bowler delivers, instead of looking down then up. The technology would beep if there was a no-ball. I guess one problem is this technology would have to be installed on all major cricket grounds, but with all that money coming in to the ICC from media empires surely it could be afforded
posted by Bharani | Tuesday, January 08, 2008
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