Only one team played within the spirits of the game - whole world knows who it is. Indians should have returned back after that horrific experience. I don't know why on earth they chose to stay!!!!!!!!
Sydney 2008 will go down in the annals as the Test match when cricket bled. Never has such a compelling, edge-of-the-seat game left a bitter aftertaste. Indian fans have spilled into the streets, outraged at the travesty of justice.
For four days long, Mark Benson and Steve Bucknor parlayed their ineptitude, reserving their worst for India on the final day.
Bucknor first sentenced poor Rahul Dravid, seemingly for an edge to the keeper. It was clear that Bucknor had been deceived by the gravity of appeal. Television replays confirmed that at least three columns of light could have passed through the space between Dravid’s bat and pad.
It’s amazing that Bucknor could actually hear a faint edge given that a thick snick off Andrew Symonds on Day One didn’t flinch him one bit.
If ever this India side craved one afternoon of long tedium, it was at Sydney. India desperately wanted Dravid to consume time as only he can. Dravid's wicket was just that little tonic Australia needed to make early inroads in the Indian middle order.
The Jamaica-born umpire found a perfect ally in Mark Benson who didn’t think it fit to consult the third umpire when Sourav Ganguly edged Brett Lee to Michael Clarke. Worse still he took Ricky Ponting’s verdict as God’s verse.
Television replays proved inconclusive which entitled Ganguly to benefit of doubt. In a game where there was so much at stake, Benson let Ponting and Clarke’s claims take sway when technology could have been used.
Ganguly had another case: the ball had clearly touched the ground when Clarke rolled over in the act of taking the catch. Once again time was of essence; India by losing the well-set Ganguly at that stage were virtually heading for the inevitable.
Bucknor and Benson had effectively sealed India’s fate on Day One when Andrew Symonds was presented a bonanza of reprieves. Save for the two who mattered the most, nobody at the stadium might have missed the cluck of the bat when Symonds edged Ishant Sharma to MS Dhoni. Symonds was on 31 then.
It baffles reason that even the third umpire Bruce Oxenford after mulling over scores of replays got it wrong when he turned down a stumping with Symonds on 48. Australia were 133/6 at that stage; and India had a realistic change of shutting them out under 200. Then another one at 148 when Bucknor decided not to refer the appeal to third umprie. Perhaps, he knew that is not going to change the decision anyway after the previous referral.
The whole Test was riddled with blatant umpiring errors with India getting the hard knocks at crucial junctures like Jaffer’s dismissal in the first innings to a no ball and Ponting getting a let off at 17 after edging one on the leg side – the sound could have had no other source but the willow which was at a fair distance from his stuffing.
Should that have happened, Australia, and not India, would have had to do all the catching up in this Test. India would have easily won the test which, ironically, they lost due to Bucknor and his allies. Will the Gods know why on earth, elite umpires performed that way? Nobody has dared to investigate on the lines of match fixing and bribing.
Australia are old hands at deception. Ponting’s vociferous appeal to claim a questionable catch off Dhoni was on expected lines. But what about Adam Gilchrist acclaimed as Australia’s emissary of honesty. Wouldn’t he have known that Dravid hadn’t nicked the ball?
The Sydney Test has sullied the very spirit of cricket; it might also have exacted a great price. was this Test an aberration? or is it going to be a trend setter? Last thing the game needs is death of faith.
If ICC doesn't restructure and reform itself, this game is sure to die. They should come out with new rules to ban sledging and make the umpries accountable for their wrong decisions instantaneously.
Well, at the end of the day - a game which India should have won easily - they were forced to loose by external factors - bucknor, benson, bruce, ponting, symonds and procter...all were equally involved.
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