Our heads hang in shame, again

At the end of it all, in what was one of the most eventful Tests this beautiful game has seen, the first test of the new year will be remembered for all the wrong reasons. India could argue that the Aussies got away with having 2 additional players on the field and one more off it....as the umpires decided to play Santa and gift the reigning champions an oh-so-sweet test victory over arch-rivals India. The Aussies , on the other hand, could thank their stars and messrs Bucknor, Benson and Oxenford for letting them get away with a win in a match for which a draw would have been a just result.

Steve Bucknor, the Jamaican umpire on the ICC ''Elite'' list is best known for two things...one-for having stood in more tests than any other umpire and two-for being India's bugbear time and again. And true to his reputaion, he once again played a leading hand in denying India a well deserved draw. He turned out absolute howlers with disheartening regularity, and surprise surprise...against who else, but India? It would be difficult to believe that the man is not biased against India after taking a look at his decisions that have repeatedly served to put the Indians on the backfoot on numerous occasions in the past. Sourav Ganguly had famously given him a rating of zero in the captain's report after a test on the Australian tour of 2003-04. Whether or not Anil Kumble chooses to follow in his footsteps this time is yet to be seen, but that doesn't take away from the fact that umpires like Bucknor, who have reached the ripe old age of 61 need to be removed from the panel. There is bound to be an obvious decline in their ability to adjudicate with passage of time and the cricketing fraternity will be witness to such poor umpiring if such measures are not followed.

The other umpire, Mark Benson does not come out in shining light either. Alongwith the TV umpire Oxenford, the two on-field umpires did Australia favours time and again over each of the 5 days as they recovered from a precarious 134/6 to post 463 on the board in the first innings. Andrew Symonds, the main beneficiary, should have been back in the pavilion while he was on 30 but he went on to make 162 not out, after being let off thrice through ridiculous umpiring. Together the trio accounted for 8 pathetic decisions, 7 of them in Australia's favour...which is a damning comment on their son-called ''Elite'' status.

It would be difficult to say what might have been if this would not have happened, though for sure, cricket lovers would have been able to see a match won, lost or drawn on the pure basis of the competing teams' ability, or the lack of it. And even though Harsha Bhogle might say that cricket is not a game of ''what might have been'', it would be difficult, Mr Bhogle, to discount the effect that 8 such '' what might have beens'' would have had on the outcome of this match.