Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Fortune or Farce?

And so it was, shortly after lunch today, we had the undisputed best bowler in the world today (Steyn) in top rhythm bowling beautiful booming outswingers to the best batsman of all time (Tendulkar of course). With the new ball, on perhaps the best cricket ground in the world (Newlands), in the deciding Test between the top two teams in the world, in a crucial match situation in the first innings. Does cricket get any hotter than this?

What a shame it was marred by poor umpiring and vastly poorer administration by the corrupt powers that be that is the Indian cricket board, to not universally adopt the proven umpire decision review system technology for their Test matches. Tendulkar was palpably caught behind just after lunch and given not out, a decision that may well have denied South Africa their rightful series victory by costing them many runs, just as had happened in the previous Test in Durban.

Am I being naive to bleat about unfairness? Or can it be true that umpiring decisions are in fact more rigged than player performances? India need to stop being a bunch of sulking Luddite pussies and move forward with the times and adopt the damn technology like everybody else. Perhaps their stubborn reluctance to tow the line is only fitting for a third world country growing too big for its boots.