Bucknor's head served up on a platter

[Sickko]

Bucknor's head served up on a platter

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Chloe Saltau
January 9, 2008


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INDIA have had their way. Steve Bucknor last night was preparing to board the next flight to Jamaica after the International Cricket Council caved into India's demand to have the struggling umpire sacked.
The ICC took the extraordinary step of subbing in New Zealand eccentric Billy Bowden among a series of concessional measures designed to bring a sense of calm to India's volatile tour of Australia. Not surprisingly, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) was pleased to see the back of the 61-year-old, who was largely blamed for the country's defeat in the Sydney Test.
"The ICC has done a good job in replacing him," said BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah. "The players had lost confidence in him and that is not good. I don't like to say that we have won or lost but when the team loses faith in a match umpire it is better that the umpire doesn't stand."
Bucknor will remain on the ICC's elite panel of umpires until March 31, when his contract expires, and is unlikely to seek an extension. Last night the game's most experienced umpire was holed up in his hotel at The Rocks in Sydney, waiting for the ICC to organise him a flight home to the Caribbean. He had instructed the hotel not to allow any calls to be connected to his room.
Bucknor became a casualty of the emotionally charged tour less than 24 hours after an ICC spokesman said his job was safe. However, match referee Mike Procter will continue in the job for the remainder of the series, despite angering ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed by letting Indian batsman Yuvraj Singh get away with a blatant display of dissent during the Boxing Day Test.
Speed said he had taken a pragmatic decision, which contradicts the principle that countries should not be able to dictate the appointment of match officials, so that the series can continue peacefully. He said Bucknor had accepted the decision.
"I expect that Steve will continue as an ICC Elite Panel umpire. He is coming to the end of his career," Speed said. "What we are seeking to do is take some tension out of the situation. Steve's continued presence had become an issue.
"Steve accepts that in the interests of the game and this Test match it is better that another umpire substitute for him … where the presence of one umpire becomes an issue that causes further aggravation we need to be sufficiently flexible."
The Indians have long felt persecuted by Bucknor, who, during the second Test, made two shocking decisions - in favour of Andrew Symonds in the first innings and against Rahul Dravid in the second - that changed the course of the game.
In the aftermath of India's 122-run defeat, Indian team manager Chetan Chauhan revealed the team's intention to make an official complaint about the umpires and demand that Bucknor be stood down for the Perth Test, where he was scheduled to officiate with Pakistan's Asad Rauf.
Should Harbhajan Singh's appeal against his three-Test suspension for racial abuse not be heard before the WACA Ground Test, which begins next Wednesday, the provocative spinner will be free to play and the Indian board will have scored a straight-sets victory. That would only reinforce the perception of the ICC's being out-muscled by the financially and politically powerful BCCI, which earlier threatened to abandon the tour in protest at the Harbhajan decision.

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[Sickko]

Players are the problem - not umpires (282)

• Jonathan Agnew
• 8 Jan 08, 03:17 PM

Anybody who finds themselves surprised by the events on India's tour of Australia must have been living on a different planet for the past five years.
The unedifying drama unfolding in Sydney is the result of a number of issues which have been bubbling away beneath the surface with increasing intensity.
They all exploded in a furious head as Australia single-mindedly homed in on their record-equalling 16th Test victory, without giving a damn about the consequences on the way.
Let’s start what will probably be a controversial, but honest, assessment by congratulating Australia on their achievement.
What a shame it is that the legacy of this fine team will be so tarnished by the ugly and offensive manner in which it plays the game – and has done for at least three years.
Ricky Ponting’s men have trampled all over the spirit of cricket by offering the lame excuse that they are "hard". In their world, deliberately conning the umpire is part and parcel of the game: “It’s his decision," they offer as a cop-out.
Just look at Andrew Symonds, who visibly gloated for the media when he admitted he had got away with a catch behind the wicket early in his first innings - what a miserable performance.
And what effect does that have on the umpire’s confidence – or that of the players in him?
This Australia team plays the game to win – there’s nothing wrong in that – but it has negated its responsibility to those who watch it and, more importantly, the next generation of cricketers who will inherit the battered sprit of cricket that Ponting’s team leaves in its trail.
Cricket can be an aggressive sport, but it is the ball and the bat that should do the talking. The hostile, nasty and intimidating environment that the Australians create on the pitch is a key ingredient in unsettling an opponent.
Little wonder that, sometimes, a volatile character lashes out in what he would perceive as self-defence, and what does it say of these "hard" men that they then go and report him to the umpire?
They can give it, but can’t take it.
That, of course, does not offer any defence for racism. If Harbhajan Singh did racially abuse Symonds, he must be punished for it.
But the above might offer some insight into how a cowed opponent could suddenly react to the intense pressure and intimidation that has been deliberately and ruthlessly applied to him by the fielding team.
Purely because we are talking about India here, I am going to throw in Sreesanth’s name as an example of an Indian cricketer who has often – and recently - gone well beyond the spirit of cricket: it is not purely an Australian thing.
And that is why the decision to remove Steve Bucknor from the next Test is so short-sighted.
As I warned when Darrell Hair was seen off by the Pakistan Cricket Board 18 months ago, the way was opened for powerful cricket teams to dispose of officials when a decision is made they do not like. How dare the game be held to ransom in this way.
But the real fault lies with the players – and it is their behaviour, attitude and respect for the game and its traditions that need urgently to be addressed.
Umpires will always make mistakes – just as the players do (although you wouldn’t believe it sometimes) and undermining their confidence by removing their most senior colleague in this way is unbelievably foolish.
Cricket is truly at a crossroads.
Administered these days by businessmen who have no feel for, or genuine love and understanding of the game, cricket is played purely for money, ego and power for those who control it.
Goodness knows where it will end unless a stand is taken, and that action must be directed by all the countries at all of their players, and not the umpires.

[Mosiah]

Time for him to retire. No need to risk further his sterling contribution to cricket.

[Mosiah]

As I warned when Darrell Hair was seen off by the Pakistan Cricket Board 18 months ago, the way was opened for powerful cricket teams to dispose of officials when a decision is made they do not like. How dare the game be held to ransom in this way.

True!