Umpires also to get Man of the Match awards.

India pays for tragedy of errors

Those who pick the man of the match are allowed to consider only the 22 men in white who actually play the Test match in the two teams. That’s the sole reason why Mark Benson, Steve Bucknor or B N J Oxenford, the three umpires officiating in the Sydney Test, were not in the running for the award.

If the rules were more fair, Benson would have won it in a close race against Bucknor. Aussie captain Ricky Ponting would surely concede to his mates that the two on-field umpires did more than any of them to win this match for the home team.

Consider the facts: The first umpiring bloomer came when Australia were precariously placed at 45/2 in their first innings, with R P Singh in the middle of a dream spell having consumed both openers. Ponting and Michael Hussey were striving hard to stage a recovery when the Aussie skipper tickled one from Ganguly down the legside to wicketkeeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

The Indians appealed in unison, but umpire Benson was unmoved. Ponting, then on 17, went on to get 55 and the third wicket ultimately fell at 119 when another Benson error gave Ponting out leg before to Harbhajan when in fact he had inside-edged the ball on to his pads.

The video evidence is overwhelming—umpire Steve Bucknor erred badly and India were at the receiving end. In the process, cricket was mauled and Australia were gifted the match. Some might even say that India might have won but for the umpires. Now, cricket is all about fairness. And the verdict is simply not fair. So, what should be done? We say the ICC should annul the game. That would also mean Tendulkar would lose his 38th Test 100, Laxman his third ton at Sydney and Kumble will have to wait to get 100 wickets against Australia. But these are minor sacrifices for the larger goal of justice. The game of cricket must live.

Umps denied India heavy lead

After the bloopers concerning Ricky Ponting in the first innings, the next umpiring horror came with the Aussies once again in desperate trouble at 191/6. Andrew Symonds and Brad Hogg were now the two men trying to pull them out of the woods. Symonds got a healthy nick to one from Ishant Sharma and Dhoni comfortably pouched it. The jubilation in the Indian camp quickly turned to stunned disbelief as Bucknor sagely shook his head to signal not out. Symonds was then on 30.

Worse was to follow soon thereafter. With Australia on 238/6, Kumble drew Symonds forward and beat him with the turn, allowing Dhoni to whip the bails off in a flash. Bucknor referred the appeal for a stumping to third umpire Oxenford, who ruled him not out when all the experts on TV, including Aussie great Ian Chappell, were convinced he was a goner. Symonds, then on 48, ultimately finished on 162 not out. The seventh wicket, which should have fallen at 191, carried the score to 307.

Had there been no errors by the umpires in the Australian first innings, therefore, they would have struggled to get past 250. Just remove the 132 extra runs gifted to Symonds by the umpires and the 38 extra runs give to Ponting and the innings total should have been 293 rather than 463. And that is assuming the dismissals of Ponting and Symonds early in their innings made no difference to the rest.

Since no umpiring errors went India’s way when they batted first, their score of 532 had no contributions from the true men of the match, the umpires. That means India should actually have had a first innings lead of at least 239, perhaps closer to 280. As it is, India had to settle for a useful but not decisive 69-run lead.

Switch now to the Australian second innings. With the home team on 133/2, just 64 runs in the lead, Benson struck again. Kumble spun one into Hussey who was deep inside his crease and struck on the pads. The huge appeal was turned down with Benson deciding the ball was missing leg stump. TV replays showed it hitting the inside, not the outside, of leg stump. Hussey was then on 22.

A little later, with Australia on 188/2 and Hayden and Hussey threatening to take the game out of India’s reach, Benson did his bit again. R P Singh angled one down the leg side, Hussey tried to glance it to fine leg, got only a thin edge and Dhoni did the rest. But Benson had other ideas. Not out, he ruled. Hussey was then on 45. The third wicket which should have fallen at 133, finally fell at 250, when Kumble got Hayden.

Hussey went on to make 145 not out in Australia’s 401/7 declared. Once again, take out the 123 extra runs granted to Hussey by Benson and the Aussie total should have been under 280. Put that together with the 290 they should have got in the first innings and their combined total for both innings should have been 570 with three wickets still in hand. Against India’s 532 that would have meant they would have just about averted an innings defeat, but still be staring down the barrel. Instead, they were now well placed to push for a record-equalling 16th successive Test win.

Let’s get those Aussie scores again, the way they should actually read for both innings put together. Benson 161, Oxenford 114, Bucknor 18, the Aussie XI 571.

But so far in the match, the umpires had contributed only to the Australian batting. As part of the bowling effort, they had not pulled their weight. That was to be corrected in the Indian second innings.

With Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly batting sensibly and pulling India to safety, Bucknor got into the act. The score was 115/3, Dravid batting on 38. Symonds bowled one wide of the offstump spinning in a little. Dravid let it go by, tucking his bat behind his pads. The ball clipped his pads on the way through to Gilchrist. All the Aussies went up in unison and Bucknor, after his customary pause, nodded benignly and raised the dreaded finger. Suddenly the match no longer looked like meandering to a draw with the out-of-form Yuvraj Singh and Dhoni left before the tail.

Team Umpires wasn’t done with the match yet. With Yuvraj soon gone, Ganguly and Dhoni were on the repair job. At 137/5, Ganguly on 51 edged one from Brett Lee into the slips where Michael Clarke diving to his left grabbed the ball. Ganguly waited, unsure whether the catch had been cleanly taken. Benson, at the bowlers end didn’t seem too sure either. Then he settled the issue by asking not his colleague Bucknor, but Ponting, whether the catch had been taken. No surprise, Ponting said yes, which was good enough for Benson. After all, Ponting or Clarke wouldn’t dream of claiming a bump catch or ever getting it wrong, would they?

Team India, pitted against the invincible Benson, Bucknor and Oxenford team, folded up after a brief fight. The rest, as they say, is history. A series scoreline that should have read 1-1 heading into Perth now reads 2-0 to the Aussies. In a shocking bit of ingratitude, Symonds also went on to get and keep the Man of the Match award.