Indian Cricket Destroys Another Umpires Career
Has the Indian Cricket board destroyed yet another leading umpires career? I hope not.If you’re from the US then you may want to skip this article. If you’re a POME then hay, “where are the Ashes”? If your from the subcontinent then read on. If you’re a Kiwi, WTF are you doing reading a Aussie Blog. 
What is wrong with the cricket world right now? I am sorry, but the Indian Cricket Team and the Indian Cricket Board are doing more damage to cricket than any other singe team or player. They have now successfully removed a second top umpire from the game. Admittedly Steve Bucknor did not have a good test in Sydney – but did all the Indian players have good games? Did all the Australians for that matter? Everyone has a bad day occasionally – does that mean you destroy their career because of it? I know Tendulker has scored a couple of ducks in his career – what a waste of a wonderful talent if he had been dumped because of a ‘bad day’.
The test match in Sydney was a tremendous match from a spectators point of view. For a five day match to come down to the last couple of overs does not happen very often these days, especially if one of the teams is Australia. They have so dominated cricket that very few teams have come close. The POMS did it and won back the Ashes, albeit only briefly, but they did win them back. The current Indian team came oh so close. They are one of the few teams to outscore Australia in the first innings, an area that Australia has dominated for so long – in fact most of their victories have come from a dominant first innings.
This test match should go down in history for being a thrilling match. Instead it will go down in history as being a match tainted by so much ill feeling. The Australian team certainly do not help by being so boisterous in their victory celebrations – but is that not a sign of the times. I see all teams celebrate when a wicket is taken. Did the POMS celebrate when they won the Ashes – you bet they did. Any team that beats Australia celebrates wildly – just look at the last world cup.
Indian players have to take some of the responsibility for the sour taste left at the end of the match. I don’t know if the ‘monkey’ allegation is true or not. If it is then something needed to be done about it. The real issue is that India lost a match that A) they thought they could win after the first innings and B) at the very least thought they could draw. To lose those three wickets in the last few overs and lose the match must have come as a nasty shock. They did lose those wickets. They did lose the match. I think that in reality they were angry at themselves for that loss and expressed it by lashing out at the umpires and the Australians. The ‘monkey’ affair and the Bucknor complaints were just a vehicles to express those feelings.
The Australian team is not perfect. They do play hard but generally speaking they do play fair. The Indian team has a growing reputation for being sore losers. Eventually the ICC has to stand up to them and force them to take loses in their stride – not seek to blame and eventually destroy the careers of good umpires. I hope Steve Bucknor (who was probably rated the number one umpire prior to this) can regains his confidence and return the umpiring fold. It will be a sad day for cricket if we lose him.
To the Australian media. Grow up and stop this ‘tall poppy syndrome’ of knocking our top sportsmen and women. Ricky Ponting did nothing wrong apart from following the rules. If he had tried to sort things out on the pitch you would have complained that there are processes in place to handle these matters and he hadn’t followed them. He cannot win. Australia can and will continue to do so until oppositions decide that the only place you can beat the Aussies is on the field – not off. The POMS did and won.
