Since the ball starts turning from day one on Indian wickets people are unable to watch competitive cricket. The woes of New Zealand continue because of the shoddy umpiring of Rod Tucker and Kettleborough. We are surprised to see the decisions handed out to touring team batsmen coming to India. We are flabbergasted to know how these umpires are in the elite panel. In the first test too, the Black caps were the victims of poor umpiring and if DRS was implemented, many decisions would have been overturned. The LBW decision in favour of Shami in the second test was marginal. The decision by Tucker against Ronchi was atrocious. The best batsman in Kiwi side was done in by the umpire not once but twice in three innings. The ball would have missed the leg stump by a fair distance but Tucker must be having special eyes. A ridiculous, bad and unpalatable decision spoils the entire series. We in India are not worried about the bad decisions handed over to the overseas batsmen. But we cry for a week when a bad decision is handed out to one of our super star. The Black Caps are facing the music mainly on account of poor umpiring. The concept of neutral umpiring has failed to yield results without referrals when India is competing with other teams. India can win matches only with doctored pitches and biased umpiring. My feeling is that all LBW decisions have to be decided by the third umpire after considering all aspects of Law 36 of the ICC rule book. The test match cricket is already dying with less crowds visible in the stadiums of India. With this one sided support we can see that test matches will be played in India with only team members in the ground and no one else to watch.
Nickil Mani
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
