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ROPER'S PERSPECTIVE by Garnett Roper
Time for Steve Bucknor to walk
I have known Steve Bucknor all my life. When I was a small boy, Steve Bucknor was my scoutmaster at Jarrett Park in Montego Bay. He later presided over my court marshall for eating a mango on the street in my scout uniform.
Most of us from Montego Bay associated Bucknor with the Montego Bay Youth Club, which was a community organisation with the focus of instilling self-discipline in young men. The club had a marching band and was one of the great innovations in the days when people did things as volunteers to mentor young people, rather than complained about their marginality or under-performance. Even from those days Bucknor was a breed apart.
It has surprised none of us that he has gone on to be a FIFA referee, officiating in at least one World Cup qualifier in El Salvador, and since 1989, has become one of the greatest cricketing Test umpires of all times. Steve Bucknor holds the world record for having officiated in 100 Test matches and 131 one-day international cricket matches. He is also the only umpire to have the distinction of having officiated in four consecutive Cricket World Cup finals.
His career as an international Test umpire has been marked by at least three distinguishing marks: He has been known for the accuracy of his decisions, not that there have been no mistakes made by him, but given the fact (which Bucknor also has pointed out) that the umpire has only one angle and only an instance to act, his accuracy has been legendary. He is also distinguished by the fact that he has appeared incorruptible.
While one is by no means suggesting that other umpires have been corrupt, one is only suggesting that Bucknor has been above the fray and a breed apart. He is one of the few umpires that have been prepared to comment on his own umpiring decisions, and has admitted more than once where he has made a genuine error.
The third thing that has marked umpire Bucknor is his deliberateness. He has been nicknamed “Slow Death”, as he takes seconds to raise the dreaded finger. He is the only West Indian umpire on the international panel of umpires, and he is a Jamaican of whom we are justly proud. He is the only recipient of the ICC Golden Ball Award.
Dreadful mistakes
We are therefore astounded that Bucknor has been withdrawn from the panel to officiate in the third Test in Australia between Australia and India. One takes the point of those who insist that a terrible precedent is being set when in response to the protest of a team captain, in this case the Indian cricket team, the ICC has withdrawn an umpire. However, in fairness, anyone who has seen the second Test between Australia and India at Perth, has to sympathise with the position taken by the India Cricket Board. Two dreadful mistakes (failure to give Andrew Symonds out when he was caught behind on 30, and giving Ganguly out when he was not) by umpire Bucknor may well have cost India the Test match.
Gleaner columnist Tony Becca has said in a radio interview with me that there were at least 10 questionable umpiring decisions in that Test match, with seven of them going in Australia’s favour. Others have mostly said that Steve Bucknor did not have his best game and that was all there was to it. We accept that that was the case. The trouble is, we are concerned that this may be the start of a slippery slope.
No one can take away from the fact that umpire Bucknor has had a long and illustrious career. He has made his mark and is to be numbered among the great West Indians of the modern era. Antigua has its Viv Richards, Guyana has it Clive Lloyd, Trinidad and Tobago has its Brian Lara, and Jamaica has its Courtney Walsh and Steve Bucknor. Bucknor could have made it in football, but cricket chose him. We are jealous to guard the legacy that he has bequeathed. We would not like to see anything happen that would take away from his illustrious career.
Legend has it that Steve Bucknor is 61. Others insist that he is 58. We are not suggesting that he is too old to contribute. We are, however, suggesting that umpire Bucknor does not wear out his welcome. We would never like to see another situation in which a Test team is insisting that he does not perform duties as umpire.
The modern game has put umpires under a lot of pressure. In the first place, that pressure has come from the advent of technology. The cameras are able to examine a given decision from all angles and provide slow motion replays, all of which have served to expose umpiring errors. There is a debate on about using the technology to adjudicate all decisions. The arguments on both sides are divided along the lines of taking the game away from the people.
The second source of pressure is not unrelated to the first. As television has increased its power as a source of revenue and the players increasingly attract big bucks for themselves, the game has come to be dominated by financial considerations. The idea that cricket is a gentleman’s game and that players show their character and integrity by walking, is being jettisoned.
Ironically, Steve Bucknor himself has suggested that “walkers” only increase pressure on umpires. This is ironic because had Andrew Symonds walked when he nicked the ball into the gloves of wicketkeeper Doni in the second Test while he was still on a score of 30, Bucknor would have been saved the embarrassment of a dreadful mistake. Bucknor failed to give Symonds out and he went on to make a century, rescuing Australia from 130 for 6.
Symonds later admitted that he knew that he was out, but said it was the umpire’s responsibility to give him out. That from Symonds, the only black player on the Australian team, only served to increase our sadness, because it gave the impression that he was willing to win by cheating. The fact is though, the more cricket becomes a big money sport, the more the content of a person’s character is an issue in how the game is played.
We say all of this to say that is time for umpire Steve Bucknor to walk.
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