My two cents...: Slow news day? Definately India's fault

Sunday, August 02, 2009

Slow news day? Definately India's fault

India, cricket's money magnet, only cares about umpiring when it thinks it has been dudded.
It's always someone else's fault, like in Sydney 18 months ago, and the umpires are an easy target.
Just ask Steve Bucknor about the support, or lack of it, that umpires receive when India spits the dummy.
Bucknor, who like Koertzen stayed in the game about a decade too long, failed to give Andrew Symonds out caught behind in Sydney during the New Year's Test in 2007. India lost, India whinged, moaned and complained, Bucknor got sacked and the ICC and Cricket Australia let the caravan roll on. Who cares about principles when there's millions at stake?
It comes as no surprise then that India, which has more resources than the rest of the cricket world combined, is the only major Test nation without an umpire on the dozen-strong international panel.

12 comments:

jrod said...: Want to walk over and punch him for you?; 12:10 PM, August 02, 2009
Homer said...: No. Just tell him that a little fact checking helps from time to time :)

Cheers,; 12:26 PM, August 02, 2009
jrod said...: I checked his fact book it says.

Blame the IPL.; 1:04 PM, August 02, 2009
Naresh said...: Rudi will have to do much more than what he has done before he attains the Bucknor level.

BTW, Punty got the benefit today from Rudi (as per cricinfo commentary). Of course, it does not count, especially because he was bowled within a minute.; 2:08 PM, August 02, 2009
Homer said...: UJ,

Pity, because he can really write well when he chooses to.

Cheers,; 8:46 PM, August 02, 2009
Homer said...: Naresh,

Obviously :)

Cheers,; 8:47 PM, August 02, 2009
Vikas J Yadav said...: Homer,
Now people knows whether an umpire gives right decision or not by replay panel.There would have been some event in cricket history when umpires have committed mistakes but fans did not get to know but now we knows that's why we are crying.; 5:42 AM, August 03, 2009
Maithreyi said...: How he managed to rope in Obscenely!Wealthy!IndianCricket (TM) and IPL-bashing (player-destroying? Wow) in a piece meant to be about declining standards of umpiring, is a thing of beauty.

And honestly, comparing Koertzen to Bucknor is unfair. I don't think he's that bad.

Koertzen has been sticking around way longer than he should, they say. So is the problem that the elite panel is full of umpires richly experienced but clearly way past their peak refusing to retire, or that there aren't good enough umpires waiting to replace them? Is there even a definitive retirement age for umpires? If not, there should be.

They keep saying they're only human. Fine. 'Bout time they recognised too.; 8:40 AM, August 03, 2009
Homer said...: Vikas,

The simple solution then is to do away with replays.

But that wont happen anytime soon, will it?

Cheers,; 8:46 AM, August 03, 2009
Homer said...: Maithreyi,

As this link proves. Conn will get the IPL and the subcontinent in any discussion, context be damned.

As regards retirement, the ICC solicits opinions from the captains after every match about the standards of umpiring and then does absolutely nothing with that data - I have yet to see an umpire being sat down because of poor ratings by the players.

If the ICC cannot act based on player input, do you really expect them to talk to umpires about retiring?

Cheers,; 8:50 AM, August 03, 2009
raj said...: LOL, Homer. Were his ancestors prescient enough to name themselves a variant of 'con'?; 12:12 PM, August 03, 2009
Homer said...: Raj,

not sure about the ancestors but this much I can tell you - Sydney 2008 has affected him more than most :)

Cheers,; 2:47 PM, August 03, 2009