Australia wins the second test match at Sydney, ironically enough cricket loses.
What else can you conclude when a team is subjected to a series of umpiring mistakes one after the other all going against it, and as a result of which the team loses. The Indian team played well under all adverse conditions which were non-sportive in nature and lost.

I have no complains about the Australian team for it is their right to appeal irrespective of whether its an out or not. Its all a part of the game and we all do that. The decision finally lies with the umpires.

And we have loads of complains about these two/three not so gentlemen who did the umpiring there. One or two umpiring mistakes are totally acceptable in any game because finally even umpires are humans and are bound to err, which is why today we have sophisticated technology and third umpire sitting out there to help out the umpires on field.

But when umpires commit mistakes after mistake, and both umpires on the ground do it, and then even the third umpire does it again, it is definitely unacceptable and the intentions are to be doubted. This happened in the previous first test at Melbourne also, but we let it go assuming it to be human error. But look at the list this time. If you plot a graph of umpiring blunders its steadily on the rise. Its better not to play cricket at all, than to play under such biased umpires. Look at the list in this match alone.

Ricky Ponting was not given out by umpire Benson when he was batting at 17 in the first innings. It was a clear caught behind. There was a clear nick and the graph clearly showed a rise. Ponting went on to score 55. When a batsman is appealed for caught behind, the first person to know about whether he is out or not would be the batsman himself because he would have clearly felt about the ball touching the bat or not. Ponting stood ground inspite of this.

We have scores of examples where batsmen have walked out without waiting for the umpire when they realised that they were caught behind. Ponting didn’t. But thats ok, because we also have scores of examples where batsmen have not walked out when the umpires didn’t give them out, even when they knew they were out. Its all in the game because umpire is the final authority.

Again when Ponting was finally given out by the same Benson at 55 for an lbw, it was a clear NOT OUT. Ponting was actually not out when he was given out. Its like converting a cricket series into a cartoon series.

Andrew Symonds was given not out at 30 when there was a clearly audible outside edge, then again in his 40′s he was clearly stumped as his foot was above the ground and the bails were off and yet this time the third umpire – Bruce Oxenford did not give an out. He went on to score an unbeaten 162. A third umpire who has ample time to give his decision and has all the visuals replayed right in front of his eyes again and again, and for him to declare a not out when the visual replays show otherwise makes it undoubtedly clear that he is biased.

Again later the second day when a stumping appeal was made for Symonds when he was in his 140s, Bucknor this time refused to call for a third umpire, even though the replays clearly showed that Symonds was short of crease! How come Bucknor was so confident not to call for the third umpire, because replay showed otherwise?

Waseem Jaffer was given out for a possible no ball from Bret lee! At least as per standard umpiring practices, the benefit of doubt should have gone for the batsman.

Peter Roebuck wrote in Syndney Morning Herald about Bucknor saying Clearly, the sweet-natured Jamaican is past his prime. Indeed, he was expected to retire after the World Cup. Those responsible for allowing him to linger were also partly responsible for a decision that changed the course of the day and possibly the match and series

Then came the final blow for Indians when Indian batsmen were given a series of outs for clear not outs. This complete the picture proving the umpire’s intentions.

Rahul Dravid was declared out by Steve Buckner when the replays clearly showed that Dravid was not out. Dravid who is always a very dignified player who is never seen to react on the ground, even he was so unhappy about the wrong decision that he reacted strongly before leaving the ground in disappointment.

Next comes Ganguly’s catch. It looked like the fielder had grassed the ball, and I was rolling on the floor laughing when Ganguly was declared out. A school kid in my neighborhood who saw this catch of Clarke said this is a pitch catch, not a full catch
The most funny part here was that the catch was NOT visible to the umpire Benson who gave this out, and how did he conclude that it was a valid catch? He asks the captain of the fielding team as to whether it was an out, and this new fourth umpire Ponting confirms the catch and lo the umpire declares it out. What kind of umpiring is this?

If the umpire had a doubt there he should have gone to the square leg umpire to clear his doubt, and if even he was unclear then he should have gone to the third umpire, instead here he asks the captain of the fielding team about whether his team mate Michael Clark took the catch or not!! This is cricket played at its lowest level. If this is going to be the way umpires decide, then why do we need umpires in the first place, let the fielding team itself be the umpire always

All these days I used to think that the difference between a war and a sport is that in sport you follow the rules to win

Indian Cricket Board BCCI should take some serious action against these umpires instead of let going things as usual saying forgive and forget. This is not the first time Bucknor is acting like this, he had done this to India in earlier matches too. Finally BCCI has decided to complain to ICC (International Cricket Council) about the quality of umpiring

Kumble should have asked his team to walk out of the game when the umpires continued the trend one after the other. Accepting injustice is the same as doing injustice. If I dont feel that a natural game is on, whats the use of playing it? To hell with all the one sided international norms. When a player errs he is immediately penalised. What about when the umpires err? The ICC should take suo moto notice of this and take actions against the umpires.

The position of an umpire has the same dignity as that of a supreme court judge. Its bad for a game to allow this position to become a controversial one. If I were the BCCI chairman I would have made it very clear to ICC, no more cricket with ICC till these three umpires are removed. Friends say, thats why I am not

BCCI should also immediately call back the team from Australia, not just out of mere symbolic protest, but given the fact that these same bunch of jokers will be doing umpiring in the third test match too.

A new term has to be be added to the dictionary of cricket- Bucknored meaning given out when you are not out OR given not out when you are actually out!

Finally I have one question unanswered. Why? Why do the umpires do this?

Australia might have won today, but Cricket has definitely lost.

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