[rks]

The best joke was by Ian Chappell. I didn't hear his comment properly, but it went something like this. "If I were an Indian batsman I would tell my mate 'You take Steve Bucknor, I'll take care of the other end'".

Steve Bucknor is known to be a prejudiced man. In this match he went out of his way to help Symonds. He was obviously out caught behind in the first innings, Bucknor gives it not-out. Then he was very close to being out stumped but Bucknor refuses to refer the appeal to the third umpire and gives it not-out. Dravid is given out by Bucknor caught behind to the bowling of Symonds, when the bat was nowhere near the ball (and there was no contact with the pad either).

Add the mistakes of Benson (especially Ganguly in the second innings) and this match was stolen from us. India could have won with fair umpiring.

[MaserQ]

The standards of umpiring in international cricket has been plummeting to new levels lately. The last 5 days have taken it a step lower. Players are pulled up for their mistakes by the match referee. It is high time the umpires are held accountable too. One or two crucial decisions can change the course of a game and that is NOT fair play.

Another case in point is the Harbhajan issue. How many times have we seen the aussies use obscene language and get away with it?? Oh yes, let us be reminded that it is 'un-natural' for players from the subcontinent to get animated. Eagerly awaiting the match referee's decisions on this one as Bhajji apologised right there on the field of play.

Lastly, one can have all the talent in the world, BUT sheer grit and determination doesnt come packaged with it I am afraid. The Indian batsmen need to take a leaf out of Kumble's batting under pressure. Over the years only 3 players have consistently shown nerves of steel, namely Dravid, Kumble and Ganguly. They are going to need a lot of that if they have to beat a 14-man australian team in Perth.

[snaronikar]

As Mark Waugh had put it before the series, "India cannot win a single game in this series and it will be white wash". Well we now know what he meant..with 14 players around.

The Kumble's discussion with Harsha after the match, if anybody has seen his face, we could have easily made out he was totally angry and disgusted. Though he did not mention about the same, what he said was it was unfortunate and disappointing.

It appears now, that the axe will certainly fall on YS and VS will be bought in for opening the innings with Jaffer.

[rks]

Yes, hats off to Anil Kumble. I would have given him the man of the match award. That would have been a proper slap-in-the-face to the Aussies and the umpires. And Harbhajan showed a lot of grit too, but he got an unplayable ball in the second innings.

To add to my previous list of umpiring mistakes. Ponting was out caught-behind down the leg side in the first innings. There was a sound, a noticeable deviation and could have been only from the bat. But umpire Benson gave it not-out (snick-o-meter confirms the edge). Jaffer was out bowled by Lee in the fist innings, but the ball was a no-ball, which was missed by the umpire. And Hussey was out LBW in the second innings off the bowling of Anil Kumble, I think quite early in his innings, but was not given by the umpire ("Ball would have hit middle-and-leg" as per Michael Slater).

To be fair, I think Indians also got a couple going in their favour; Ponting given out wrongly in the first innings, and Laxman getting away with an LBW in the first innings. But the Aussies benefitted most from the shocking umpiring errors.

Gavaskar was absolutely furious with the umpiring. Since he is an ICC official, I hope he will now push for the use of technology. Why this has not been done about a decade earlier, when excellent technology was already available, is still a mystery to me.

[msdivy]

Just 6 minutes left in the game, 12 deliveries to see off, 3 wickets in hand and we lose those 3 wickets in 5 deliveries ! Its funny.

[esteem_lover]

It is time to stop blaming the umpires & accept defeat. This is not the only match that has had poor umpiring decisions affect the outcome of the match. If only we had 2 out of the top 6 batsmen staying on & playing, the match would have been a draw. Or even if only RP SIngh & Ishant Sharma could have been better batters than what they are, we could have taken it to a draw.

[SumitB]

Oh yes, I stand corrected. The Aussies did not have 13 players in the match. They had 14. How could I forget that the 14th player playing for them was the 3rd umpire. After all, he denied us the wicket of Symonds in the first innings when he was clearly out stumped. The umpires have been caught with their pants down on this one. I mean how can you explain all this!

[SumitB]

Post match, Ponting has said "You can't question my integrity". Yeah right. Your integrity is not to be questioned after you refuse to walk even after nicking a ball on the leg side! Oh wait! It was the bat hitting your pads and you did not feel a thing.

[diabloo]

Ponting took a catch off a bump and appealed for catch . Luckily its was clearly from the pads of Dhoni. So much so for his integrity. How do you explain Gilchrist appealing for Dravid's caught behind. Ponting desperately wanted to match Steve Waugh's record of 16 straight wins & hence he pushed himself & his men below the line to achieve that .

Originally Posted by SumitB

Post match, Ponting has said "You can't question my integrity". Yeah right. Your integrity is not to be questioned after you refuse to walk even after nicking a ball on the leg side! Oh wait! It was the bat hitting your pads and you did not feel a thing.

[diabloo]

Shivnarine Chanderpaul: If the umpires don't rule all the 50-50 decisions, or even some of the 40-60 ones, in Australia's favour, most of the Test teams can beat them.
Sunil Gavaskar: The stronger teams and big-name players often got away because the umpires were too scared to rule against them.
Bob Woolmer : Australia received almost six times more line-ball decisions than Pakistan during the 2004-05 series.

Its always the case in Australia, against all teams in the world. India in Australia is no different. They do these things against all teams & get away with it. This time too its no different. India will play 3rd test in Perth, 4th test in Adelaide & the matter is forgotten.

[SumitB]

Actually thats the problem with us, Indians. We forget and forgive too fast. Be it in politics, sports or life.

[LLL]

Originally Posted by rks

Yes, hats off to Anil Kumble. I would have given him the man of the match award.

WHAT!! If i were an Indian player, i would refuse to play under Kumble for his spineless LEADERSHIP. As soon as it became clear that Aussies and Umpires are openly cheating, he should have called off the test match unless both Dravid and Ganguly decisions were reversed.

Even now, i dont expect him to put his foot down and make BCCI do something about it. Trust me, BCCI will write a polite thank you letter to ICC and we will get on with the next test "mis"match. Also, dont be surprised if a couple of our players are fined for showing dissent.

Kumble is not there to play Mr nice man and handover the matches to aussies. He has been appointed captain to lead india to vistory.

From a cricketing perspective as well, had he created a controversy and delayed the game by 20-30 mins, we might have managed to draw the game. SO ALL in ALL, KUMBLE MAY BE A GREAT BOWLER, BUT HE IS A POOR LEADER AND STRATEGIST.

Originally Posted by esteem_lover

It is time to stop blaming the umpires & accept defeat.

Symonds was out on 30 but was given not out and went on to add 130 more. India lost by 122, so had that 1 decision gone in India's favor, match outcome would have been different. Let us not be goody-goody ji-hazoors, ready to show off our excessive sportsmanship. Lets be forthright and call a spade a spade.

[LLL]

Mr Kumble says


"We had a chance to save the game but the way the Aussies played all credit to them.
"We've seen the Australians vulnerable with the top order so we'll go confident to Perth."

[snaronikar]

Originally Posted by LLL

WHAT!! If i were an Indian player, i would refuse to play under Kumble for his spineless LEADERSHIP. As soon as it became clear that Aussies and Umpires are openly cheating, he should have called off the test match unless both Dravid and Ganguly decisions were reversed.

Even now, i dont expect him to put his foot down and make BCCI do something about it. Trust me, BCCI will write a polite thank you letter to ICC and we will get on with the next test "mis"match. Also, dont be surprised if a couple of our players are fined for showing dissent.

Kumble is not there to play Mr nice man and handover the matches to aussies. He has been appointed captain to lead india to vistory.

From a cricketing perspective as well, had he created a controversy and delayed the game by 20-30 mins, we might have managed to draw the game. SO ALL in ALL, KUMBLE MAY BE A GREAT BOWLER, BUT HE IS A POOR LEADER AND STRATEGIST.



Symonds was out on 30 but was given not out and went on to add 130 more. India lost by 122, so had that 1 decision gone in India's favor, match outcome would have been different. Let us not be goody-goody ji-hazoors, ready to show off our excessive sportsmanship. Lets be forthright and call a spade a spade.

Walk out of the match and get banned both by ICC & BCCI. If that's what you call it as leadership, then I would call it as foolishness. Nobody in the world and India would have supported this.

Untill start of the tour we all felt that he has good leadership abilities. Why all of a sudden you think he is a lame duck (je-hazoors). There are other 10 players in team and they could have stood up (like Kumble) till the end and be counted when it mattered most. Leave aside the poor decisions that went against us.

[LLL]

Originally Posted by snaronikar

Walk out of the match and get banned both by ICC & BCCI. If that's what you call it as leadership, then I would call it as foolishness. Nobody in the world and India would have supported this.
Untill start of the tour we all felt that he has good leadership abilities. Why all of a sudden you think he is a lame duck (je-hazoors). There are other 10 players in team and they could have stood up (like Kumble) till the end and be counted when it mattered most. Leave aside the poor decisions that went against us.

ICC does not have the guts to do anything. Inzy destroyed Darryl Hair by pulling out his team when he leveled ball tampering allegations. At the end of the day, ICC was forced to ban Hair. That was leadership from Inzy and entire pak/indian/SL ppl/cricket boards/media were behind inzy.

Can BCCI seriosuly ban Kumble? WHo is going to bowl then? Murali Karthik?
Can they ban dravid, ganguly? Who else will bat then? Yuvi?
I am sure if Kumble had shown some spine, Tendulkar/Dravid/Ganguly/Laxman would have supported him. Then who will bcci send as Indian team?

If you are watching news channels, everyone is saying that india should have walked out. So Kumble would have got support of everyone.