Decision A Poor Omen For Series
Sydney Morning Herald
Friday October 10, 2008
THE International Cricket Council was too late to stop Virender Sehwag mouthing off on the eve of the series and it would have hoped for a more distinguished start from its officials than the controversial decision that which handed Matthew Hayden his first duck in India three balls into the series yesterday.
The ICC, through match referee Chris Broad, warned players from India and Australia to refrain from making inflammatory public comments during the sequel to Bollyline after Sehwag reopened the wounds of last summer by inferring the Australians cheated their way to victory in the ill-tempered Sydney Test. As pre-emptive strikes go, this one missed its mark.However, it did not take long for the standard of umpiring, another flashpoint from last summer, to resurface as an issue. The crowd at Chinnaswamy Stadium erupted when Zaheer Khan shaved a ball past the outside edge of Hayden's bat, wicketkeeper Mahendra Dhoni took a good, low catch and umpire Asad Rauf granted the Indians' appeal.Hayden appeared to pull his bat away before the ball deviated, and replays suggested the bat hit his pad, rather than the ball. It was a worrying start to the first Test, given the prominent part played by contentious umpiring decisions in the last series.None of the officials from the Sydney Test are featuring in the return series here, and Jamaican Steve Bucknor is unlikely to stand in a Test involving India again after he was stood down from that series after complaints from the Indian board.To be fair to Rauf, this was not the kind of blatantly wrong decision that the new technology referral system is designed to stamp out, for the replays were not conclusive. That system was trialled during a recent series between India and Sri Lanka, and would have allowed Hayden to appeal for the decision to be referred to the third umpire. Instead, Hayden, so influential in these conditions, suffered the first duck of his career in India, where he averages 60.The ICC said Broad had impressed on the players the importance of diplomacy, warning they could be charged under the code of conduct if they made inappropriate public comments. "The whole world has been waiting for this series with great expectations, and we all want it to be remembered for all the right reasons - because of great cricket," ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat said."There has been a long build-up to the series but now it is time for the cricket on the field to do the talking as a demonstration that Test cricket remains the pinnacle of our great game."? Pakistan's newly appointed cricket board chairman is quoted on a website saying he is unhappy with the performance of the national team's Australian coach Geoff Lawson, AP reports."There is a need of improvement in the performance of the Pakistan team, and Lawson has so far not succeeded," PCB chairman Ijaz Butt was quoted as saying in the Urdu language section of the BBC website. Under Lawson's coaching, Pakistan lost both home Test and one-day series to South Africa and was defeated 1-0 in the Test series against rivals India.
© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald