When umpires played God at SCG...

I am still in a state of shock even after couple of days since the Sydney test ended in the most dramatic Cricketing fiascoes that I have ever witnessed thus far. I still cannot digest the fact that the umpires and not the players' performances determined the result of this well-fought test match at the SCG. If only the so-called "elite" umpires would have done their jobs a little more competently, the match would have ended much differently.

As if this was not enough hurt to all Indian fans, the "sledging-boys" of Cricket (Aussies) found themselves on the receiving end and realized that they couldnt take it as well as they like to dish it out. They conveniently forgot their motto of "what happens on the field, stays on the field" and suddenly became cry-babies (as Akram called them rightfully). I liked the article by Tim de Lisle that actually talks about eliminating this issue from the root cause instead of trying to be politically correct.
And although this was not enough, they seemed to forget the spirit of the game and claimed some really "disputable" catches on the final day of the test match.




Photo Courtesy The Times of India - Showing Ganguly's catch by Clarke (no way does Clarke seem to be in control of his body after catching the ball and the ball clearly looks grounded) and Dravid caught-behind dismissal off the pad.


The only bright side of this ugly incident was to see the support extended to the Indian team from all fronts including the Australian public and the unity that was evident in the Indian camp.
Sanjay Manjrekar for Cricinfo

Such an end to the final appearance of some of the Indian stars (Sachin, Rahul, Sourav, VVS, Anil) at their favorite Australian hunting ground was ironic but hopefully this new spirit will add some "masala" to the rest of the series and to Indian Cricket in general for a long long time.