People are afraid to face how great a part of life is dependent on luck- it's scary to think so much is out of one's control.
So; Kangaroos won yet again and equalled their record of 16 straight test wins. However as a supporter of Indian team I am not disheartened- for one there is always a possibility of our team bouncing back in the series (as they say anything is possible in cricket)and secondly I honestly feel that with the exception of few players the team played really well. But, no team can undo the damage caused by deplorable umpiring. This test match was more like Australia, Benson & Bucknor v. India. Like many occassions in the past so-called purists will again point to the possibility of human error in every game. However I believe cricket enthusiasts all around the world pay to watch errors made by players and not umpires. Besides, it is ridiculous to compare cricket with other games such ac soccer. I mean we have the technology to find out whether a particular decision was correct or not and it's a shame that it's not put to use. The only ground for sticking with the umpire is not to be questioned norm seems to be maintaining the tradition whereunder players are supposed to continue the match witout questioning the umpire even when a decision is blatantly wrong. The International Cricket Council has stood true to its earlier name: The Imperial Cricket Council. There is no age of retirement prescribed for umpires and a 61 year old umpire (who was suspended for the twenty20 world cup championships earlier this year on account of misinterpreting the rule in respect of bad light which caused the farcical finish to the World Cup final in April 2007) whose faculties of perceiving sounds and sight have failed him was appointed as an umpire in this match. This, in my opinion apart from indicating the apathetic attitude of the ICC in this regard also indicates how a seemingly decent person has become a smug- any person with even an infinitesimal amount of self-respect in Bucknor's position would have called it a day on realising that he is clearly not anymore able to do his job well. But no matter how much ink is spilled on the need for introducing change in the rules in this regard; the overbearing scoundrels in the ICC seem to be totally indifferent in this regard.
All said and done, what could have been a memorable victory for our team turned out to be a farce orchestrated to facilitate the victory of Aussies- a team which I have never admired. Reasons for my hatred towards the Aussie cricket team deserve another post and perhaps I will explain the same in some other post.
