The Indians were robbed

Guys

Check below column written by Robert Craddock. He is Australia's premier cricket writer who has covered the sport for more than 20 years. He has covered more than 150 Test matches and the past five cricket World Cups.


Robert Craddock – Monday, January 07, 08 (12:06 pm)

SORRY to spoil the party but is there anyone else out there feeling sorry for the Indians?
You have to dip your lid to the unyielding self-belief of the Australians but any fair-minded judge has to feel sympathy for the Indians who were completely dudded by the umpires.

At least six poor decisions went against them and don’t be surprised, with their spirit broken, if they struggle to fire a shot in the final two Tests of the summer unless that shot it is in the direction of umpire Steve Bucknor. A draw was the very least they deserved.

Bucknor was absolutely dreadful and his decision to give Rahul Dravid out caught behind yesterday shaped the day and exposed Bucknor as
being horribly substandard.
You can forgive an umpire for struggling with the occasional caught behind verdict - but not when a batsman has his bat behind his pad which Dravid did with easily detectable precision.
He even held it there after Adam Gilchrist took the ball as if to prove the point he was nowhere near the ball.
For an umpire not to appreciate that is an unforgivable lapse in concentration by a man who makes Mr Maggoo seem coherent and decisive.

While blogging for The Courier-Mail over the past five days I have been deluged with the outraged writings of shattered Indian fans from Mumbia to San Francisco who feel 61-year-old Bucknor’s best days - and undoubtedly they were good ones - are long gone. I haven’t disagreed with a word of it.

He should be banished forever imediately but sadly he will be back in the middle for the next Test in a fornight - and therein lies the problem with the system.

There is simply not enough accountability for umpires who perform badly.
It’s got to the stage that for a senior umpire to be dropped off the panel it almost has top be established he has links with Osama bin Laden an even then he’d probably pick up a job as a third umpire.

Bucknor has become Test cricket’s John Howard, a man who refuses to accept Father Time has tapped him on the shoulder. He may be a god-faring man who reads a passage of the bible before play each day but he is not without a decent sized ego which keeps him on the circuit at a time when he should be calling stumps.

A poignant moment was showcased Bucknor’s fading reputation came when Michael Clarke refused to walk for a blatant edge to slip in the second innings, one of the most obvious dismissals of the match. So poorly was Bucknor performing Clarke obviously thought there was a chance he would be given not out.

Dear oh dear. My hand is in the air as a critic of Ricky Ponting’s declaration yesterday which looked half an hour too late but turned out perfect. I initially thought it showed he lacked confidence in his bowlers and would have made it 30 minutes earlier had Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath been played. But he came up trumps. Good luck to him.

The more you watched Ponting’s anguish under pressure in this Test the more you have to admire Allan Border. Pressure like that is foreign to Ponting and the two captains who preceded him, Mark Taylor and Allan Border. Border had it in probably four out of every five games in his marathon captaincy career.

How on earth did he do the job for 10 years?

The day also showed that Brad Hogg, for all his zest, character and honorable talent, is a grinder rather than a match-winner. Not being able to take a wicket against India in an innings is no crime - Warne struggled against them too - but this was Sydney, it was the last day and the ball was turning. The best and worst spinners in the game know that scenario means pay day.

As hard to pick as Hogg’s wrong un undoubtedly is, the fact that his stock ball turns into the pads of right-handed batsmen means he will always have to work hard for his wickets. Before this series the selectors felt that Hogg tended to feel the pressure badly in big games. He certainly struggled yesterday.

The was controversy ridden but that added to its incredible flavour.
The umpiring, the sledging, the mistakes provided moments of irresistable drama that were chewed over in thousands of bars and living rooms around the country.
The sledging between Andrew Symonds and Harbhajan Singh proved yet again that the Australian and India sides have a cultural gap between them that decrees they will never fully understand each other.

There were eras when that may have been solved by interaction after stumps but in today’s professional world that rarely happens.