Where is the Game Heading!!!

The Second test between India and Australia in Sydney has made headlines for all the wrong reasons. Players in trouble for misconduct, the umpires giving some horrendous decisions which changed the whole course of the match this test had it all. The entire tour is now in jeopardy, what happens now is anybody’s guess!

Once again the rub of the green went agianst the Indians who were at the receiving end of much of the off the wall decisions. First, Australian captain Ricky Ponting was ruled not out by Benson couple of times even though the television replays clearly showed that the batsman had edged the ball. In the end it turned to be an anticlimax of sorts for the Australian master batsman who was ruled out leg before off a huge inside edge. Veteran Umpire Steve Bucknor fared no better. This time it was Andrew Symonds who was the beneficiary when on 30 he got a thick audible outside edge which was smartly gobbled up by Dhoni much to the jubilation of the bowler Ishant Sharma but Bucknor much to the agony of the bowler, the team and probably the entire nation turned the appeal down. It just seemed like the umpires including the third umpire sitting upstairs were just in no mood of cutting short the Australian’s stay at the wicket. Symonds benefitted again when the third umpire failed to declare him out stumped even though his feet had not touched the ground. ‘Roy’ got another reprieve when Bucknor refused to use the third umpire off a close stumping appeal. A Second look at the television replay showed that Symonds, who was on 148 then, was short of his crease, he went on to make a match winning knock of 162 N.O

The Indian batsmen also suffered heavily. Wasim Jaffer was bowled by Brett Lee off a fast delivery which on another day might have been called a No-Ball. In the second innings Rahul Dravid was given caught behind when a second look showed the bat nicely tucked behind the pads and miles away from the bat. Saurav ganguly was given the marching order even though Michael Clark took a bump catch, also grounding it while rolling over. Peter Roebuck has been critical about the umpire in his column for the Sydney Morning Herald where he wrote: "Clearly, the sweet-natured Jamaican is past his prime. Indeed, he was expected to retire after the World Cup. Those responsible for allowing him to linger were also partly responsible for a decision that changed the course of the day and possibly the match and series."

While one could argue that the umpires are also humans and just like you and me are prone to have bad days in office,shouldn't something be done to make sure such things are avoided in the future since a bad decision could change the course of the game, the series and dare I say even a player's career.

How realistic is it for me to expect the ICC to start penalizing umpires for not performing their job upto expected levels, just like how a player is dropped when not performing properly the umpires should also be subject to such considerations. Probably explore options where a rating and scores are given for the umpires or assign points based on their experience and then start docking points whenever they make blatant errors and start taking actions when the points fall below a certain level. I think such drastic measures would play a major role in keeping the umpires on their toes because the decision that they give could change a match on its head!!!