By Anil - Dec 7, 2003
December 7 2003

Day 4 of the opening Test at the Gabba between India and Australia was significant for two reasons: a big, brilliant century from skipper Sourav Ganguly at a time when India was teetering on the brink of disaster, and the utter lack of fair play from yet another ICC elite umpire. When Sachin Tendulkar was given out LBW by Steve Bucknor to a ball travelling miles above stumps, missing off-stump and off a no-ball at that, few were more surprised than the bowler, Jason Gillespie. After all, Sachin had intentionally left the delivery which was bouncing far too high and Gillespie was the only one to appeal. Sometimes, a bowler will appeal just to rattle the batsman, and Dizzy's appeal was one such. Imagine his surprise when, long after he had given up on the mock appeal and glared at the batsman for good measure, Bucknor raised the dreaded finger.

If West Indian Bucknor, one of the most experienced ICC umpires, had not given key Australian batsmen Justin Langer, Matt Hayden, and Ricky Ponting the benefit of the doubt on the plumbest of LBWs and cleanest of catches during their innings, his warped judgment in this case would be easier to accept as a one-off. However, given the totality of his performance in this match, it is very hard to give Bucknor the benefit of the doubt. One cannot easily explain away such a pointed "inconsistency" -- one that benefits the same team every time.

Aside from that, his blatant disregard for Tendulkar, one of the all-time greats of the game, speaks of a contempt that is hard to fathom. This elite umpire team is a sham, one that needs to be addressed before the ICC gets itself into serious trouble rivalling even the infamous Mike Deness affair. South African Rudi Koertzen, officiating at the other end, too was involved in denying a couple of very adjacent LBW shouts by Zaheer Khan, as if to prove that Bucknor isn't the only one with a problem. Justin Langer owes his century to these two umpires; he should have been out in single digits if not for their benificence.

Sourav Ganguly, coming in at a time when India looked to be losing the plot, put all that behind him to score a magnificent century on the fastest, bounciest pitch of them all against the best pace bowling attack in their own backyard. Jason Gillespie may be unanimously considered the best fast bowler in the world, but Ganguly showed him scant respect in driving, cutting, and pulling his way to a superbly compiled 144, one of the best innings this ground has had the fortune to witness in recent times.

Even the most diehard Aussie fans would admit that were it not for the 4 or 5 quite disgraceful decisions that went Australia's way during their innings, their team would now be fighting hard to avoid an innings defeat. Take away Langer's innings and they would have been hard put to get to 200. In that light, consider India's top-class batting even though Tendulkar was robbed by Bucknor, and India's pacemen and spinners on a wearing fifth-day pitch potentially far more helpful than when they fired out the Aussie lineup in the first innings -- few would have bet against India starting the Test series with a richly deserved win. Steve Waugh would be well advised to dedicate his farewell Test at his home ground to ICC's elite umpires.

Postscript: Elsewhere, Australian umpire Daryl Harper turned down close LBW shouts against England on a fifth day when they were fighting hard to save a Test. At the end of a day when England's notoriously weak tail were desperately defending against Lanka's spinning great Muthiah Muralitharan with 9 wickets down, an LBW had yet to be given during the 4th innings -- this in a match where every one of the first three innings had yielded several LBWs. Several close shouts were denied by both elite umpires toward the ending stages of the game, which was eventually brought to a close by the umpires early on the basis of insufficient light. Strangely, the light was far poorer when England was given the opportunity, to Moin Khan's open disapproval, to bat themselves to a win against Pakistan in Karachi in the final minutes of the fifth day a couple of years earlier, handing them a series win.