Should Bucknor be removed from panel of ICC umpires?

INCOMPETENT OR BIASED? According to many it was Bucknor who bowled India out of the match.

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The second Test match between India and Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) was marred by many poor umpiring decisions most of which went against the visitors. Stephen Anthony Bucknor, the 61-year-old umpire from the West Indies, was the culprit on most of the occasions giving one shocking decision after another as India went on to lose the match by 122 runs and with it any hope of winning back the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

The poor standard of umpiring caused a lot of heartburn in the Indian team and also among the fans.

In the Sunday Special on CNN-IBN the topic of discussion was, “Should Steve Bucknor be removed from panel of ICC umpires?”

Anil Chowdhury, a member of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) panel of umpires, and the associate editor of DNA, Ayaz Memon, discussed the issue with CNN-IBN’s Bhupendra Chaubey.

According to many it was Bucknor and not the Australian team, who bowled India out of the match. Some of his howlers included not giving out Australian skipper Ricky Ponting on Day I when he had edged the ball and then giving him out lbw when there was a clear edge on to the pads.

Then Symonds got a reprieve when he was not given out caught behind despite clearly edging the ball. The third umpire, too, ruled Symonds not out when his feet was in the air and Mahendra Singh Dhoni had stumped him. Symonds went on to score a century.

Bucknor came to Symonds’ rescue once again in second innings, too, and did not even refer the third umpire for a stumping appeal. Symonds was out of his ground.

He then raised his finger when the ball had only brushed Rahul Dravid’s pad and ruled him out caught behind. Then the other umpire Mark Benson gave Sourav Ganguly out caught by Michael Clarke in the slips preferring to take Ponting’s help to make his decision rather than go to the third umpire.

So India were always on the receiving end of umpiring decisions during the second Test match.

However, Ayaz Memon did not see it as a bias against the Indian team.

“On the evidence of how he has performed in this match and the litany of complaints against him over the years, it is not a question of bias. Let us leave that out. It is a question of competence. If the guy is going to be so incompetent frequently, then I don’t see how he can exist in the Elite Panel? I don’t know why the panel is choosing him every time?” Memon asked.