If after reading the title you are still wondering what the subject of this post relates to then either you haven’t got an interest in Cricket (the sport not the insect) or you have been living under a rock for the last 5 days. For the benefit of the latter, let me explain what happened.
The Indian cricket team is in the middle of a tour in Australia. Having lost the first test match pretty badly they were hoping to make amends during the second test which concluded today. As a neutral, I was hoping to catch a great game of cricket, with two of the top teams in world cricket clashing for pride and honour. Unfortunately what I saw was neither, and can only even barely be classified as cricket.
I have been following cricket for over 20 years and this test had the worst collection of umpiring blunders that I have ever seen. The severity of the errors and the affect it had on the final outcome can be measured differently based on whether its seen through eyes of an Indian or an Australian. The former will see it as having had a significant effect on the result while the latter will argue its effects were marginal.
As a third-party I’m obliged to add my 2 cents to the discussion. In one sentence, Australia wouldn’t have won the test if it wasn’t for the umpiring blunders. You might think this is a bold statement, but lets look at a few key moments in the game (there were many more, but these 2 stand out)
- 1st Innings. Andrew Symonds - Caught behind on 30 - He goes on to score 162 n.o. and is the highest scorer for Australia. Keeping the lower order batting together and helping them score 463. If he was correctly given out they would have slumped to 134+ for 7 wickets and it would have been highly unlikely (although admittedly not impossible) for them to have scored that many runs.
- 2nd Innings. Michael Hussey - Caught behind on 40 - He goes on to score 145 n.o. and once again is the highest scorer for Australia.
These 2 incidents alone gave Australia an additional 230+ runs, in the context of the game this is extremely significant. This also highlights 2 important facts about Cricket in general. The first is that although Cricket is a team sport, a single individual can have a huge impact on the outcome of the game. And the second, is that sometimes (unfortunately too often) this individual is the umpire.
Isn’t it time for Cricket to learn from such sports as American Football and Tennis and to allow teams to challenge the decisions made by on field umpires. Some purists might argue that this challenges the fundamental ‘gentlemen’s’ nature of Cricket, but having seen the way in which this test match was played, I think that aspect of the game has long since been lost.
Edit: Looks like the ICC has finally realised this, see here
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