Well, next victim in this elasticated rollercoaster of insanity pants is Steve Buckner. One of the most loved umpires in international cricket, Bucknor delighted millions by apparently doing nothing.It takes a great man indeed to inspire such loyalty through sloth.
As well as his apathetic approach to the game, he also was a good judge. Never roused. Never riled. Never seemingly interested much in cricket. Weirdly, he was charismatic in his quiet way.
And now the sub-continental madness has subsumed this noble figure. Of course, Bucknor made a series of unfortunate mistakes; India bizarrely claim turned the match decisively in Australia’s favour, but we all have off days.
With Daryl Hair’s recent deposition, the infallibility of umpires’ is beginning to crumble. First, technology robbed them of their omniscience and now cocky players and have-a-go boards are stripping their omnipotence.
Cricket is a game that stands on respect: for the spirit and for its institutions. Australia did their bit by destroying the spirit, and now the sub-continental teams and steadily undermining its institutions.
Cricket is supposed to be aloof to petty concerns about minor events and “winning” – it is about conducting yourself in a gentlemanly manner. Now all we have left is high political intrigue in the ICC and Shane Warne’s marriages.
Perhaps the Empire was wrong to export it? Damned natives can’t be trusted with it.
7 comments:
I chuckled when they said they were getting Billy Bowden to replace him for this Test. Mostly because I'm not sure he'd be much better than Bucknor.
If only they'd let us have Harper and Taufel, or even Hair. I'm sure in this day and age with endless scrutiny by the media and anyone that gives a damn, favouring the home side shouldn't be a problem. Especially now that we know umpires can be tossed aside, like Hair and Bucknor have now been.
He did force the world cup final to be played in the dark, i think he's been slipping for a while.
Doesnt mean i wouldn't like a beer with him.
"...we all have off days..."
sorry mate you missed the whole point...one don't have any problem with anyone having off day but selective off day is what one question about...we call it grudge against somebody if you have 'off day' against one particular person...i don't know what you call it...
though i agree with Uncle that he should have been banned much earlier for world cup fiasco...
The other thing about Mr Bucknor, is that he's not Billy Doctrove..
If he was, I would be chasing him with a stump!
Straightpoint, to you, I say this: nonsense. As tempting as victimisation is, Bucknor does not have a "grudge" against India. He is a professional umpire of about 300 years experience.
We now think that Billy Bowden and Billy Doctrove is rubbish. Is there any umpire in world cricket that is, you know, good?
Perhaps we should bring back Dicky Bird?
common atheist
if one is bad than he is bad for all and equal...how would you defend that both buckner and benson were consistently bad for india only...all thier decisions were against only one side on park...how one can be so nakedly selectively bad...
please comment...
SP,
I'm sad to say that the world doesn't have it in for India. From what I have seen of the game, the umpires made bad decisions in favour of both teams.
Of course, India received the largest share of these poor judgements. But, given the number of tests, it's not stretching the law of averages to reach such a eventuality.
Uncle J Rod's analyis on this is worth considering: he states that is a combination of unlucky incidents that has pissed of India. This is the source of ill-feeling, not any one event.
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