In every sport, umpiring is a difficult job. An umpire’s major responsibility in cricket is to guarantee that the game is played fairly and sportingly. Being a cricket umpire is a difficult assignment.
Before becoming eligible to serve in a match, a candidate must pass a difficult mix of theory, practical, and viva tests. Umpires often work their way up from the bottom from the domestic/state level to judge in international games.
Despite the rigorous vetting procedure in place, umpires occasionally make mistakes that affect the outcome of a game. It’s true that, at the end of the day, umpires are humans who make errors. But what if the errors occur during a game or series in which the stakes are high?
However, a cricketer’s performance might be harmed by poor umpiring decisions. If a player needs to be penalised for interfering with an umpire’s work, the same must be held for the umpire.
In countries like India, where cricket is preached as if it were a religion, this may be seen as not merely a human fault, but a gravely controversial mistake. One error might result in a lot of trolling and scrutiny.
Many times in Indian cricket’s history, opportunities and even victories have been taken away from the Indian team due to a poor umpire’s decision. The faults of umpires were not widely recognised in the past, but thanks to technological advancements, no mistake can now be overlooked.
Here, we take a look at some of the terrible choices made by the umpires that may have swung the game against India:
1. A blunder by Steve Bucknor that “might have cost India the game.”
India toured Australia in 2008 and played one of the most heated bilateral cricket series in history. Many disputed umpiring calls were made during the second match of the series, notably the one Steve Bucknor acknowledged years later. He said,
“I made two mistakes in the Sydney Test in 2008. Mistake one, which happened when India was doing well, allowed an Australian batsman to get a hundred. Mistake two, on day five, might have cost India the game. But still, they are two mistakes over five days. Was I the first umpire to make two mistakes in a Test? Still, those two mistakes seem to have haunted me.”
Andrew Symonds is the “Australian batsman” in question, while the “second mistake” was incorrectly ruling Rahul Dravid out.
Steve Bucknor: My ‘mistake’ in 2008 Sydney Test ‘might have cost India the game’https://t.co/mukLAIojBn pic.twitter.com/JFzobRkWLQ
— ESPNcricinfo (@ESPNcricinfo) July 20, 2020
2. South Africa won a T20I against India thanks to Vineet Kulkarni’s successive blunders
JP Duminy, the match-winner for South Africa, received two lives owing to the umpire’s erroneous decisions, and he went on to score 68. The batsman was out for the first time when he was playing at number five.
After the match, captain MS Dhoni was reportedly saying:
“If decisions don’t go in your favour, that also puts pressure and I thought we were unfortunate not to get Duminy.”
Vineet Kulkarni – Man of the Match… Well done! Enjoy the moment or whatever… Gnight #IndvsSA
— Navneet Mundhra (@navneet_mundhra) October 2, 2015
3. Another Steve Bucknor error, this time adjudicating Sachin Tendulkar out on a delivery that plainly had too much bounce, as the commentators pointed out.
Sachin’s expression says it all. This happened in Gabba, 2003.
4. In a decision that stunned both fans and the Indian cricket squad, umpire Aleem Dar determined that AB de Villiers was not out when he had obviously struck the Zaheer Khan delivery that had fallen in Sachin Tendulkar’s grasp.
Nobody believed it, and there was a lot of outrage, but Aleem refused to budge.
5. Okay, there have been far too many bad judgments involving Sachin Tendulkar. Sachin Tendulkar was called out LBW on a ball that impacted his shoulder during India’s test against Australia in 1999.
6. When the ball clearly touched Virat Kohli‘s bat before reaching the pad, he was ruled LBW. Kohli immediately asked DRS, but the third umpire, shockingly, decided he was out based on “inconclusive evidence.”
Kohli was out on a duck for the fourth time in 2021, the worst performance in his whole career.
Seriously. This is not out. Very unlucky Virat Kohli here. pic.twitter.com/Sc5fD3Wuil
— CricketMAN2 (@man4_cricket) December 3, 2021