5 instances when the Indian team complained about poor umpiring
It is safe to say that the man most hated in Indian cricketing circles at the moment has to be the umpire Vineet Kulkarni. Kulkarni has earned the ire of the Indian team and the fans alike for a string of poor decisions in the India-South Africa T20 series and the first two ODIs. The Indians have now lodged a formal complaint against Kulkarni claiming that he had played a decisive role in India's defeats.Interestingly, whenever India have raised allegations of poor umpiring, India's decision to not adopt the UDRS has been intensely debated. While there have been occasions when the rest of the cricketing world considered India's allegations to be just an excuse for their poor performances, India at times have been at the receiving end of some very serious umpiring blunders.Here are 5 instances when the Indian team complained about poor umpiring.
#1 India-Australia Test series, 2007-08
One of the most controversial Test matches in India's history has to be the second Test at Sydney during the 2007-08 Border-Gavaskar Trophy. The match was marred by a serious of umpiring howlers and left the Indians seething in rage as India lost the match.
The appeal against Andrew Symonds for a caught behind was turned down even when replays suggested that he had clearly nicked the ball. Symonds went on to score 162 which turned the match on its head. Symonds was also later stumped by Dhoni but Bucknor, who was the square-leg umpire then, chose not to refer it to the third umpire.
The match saw a string of other bad decisions like a caught behind appeal against Ponting being turned down by Mark Benson and the third umpire Bruce Oxenford adjudging Symonds not out even when televisions replays clearly suggested otherwise. Bucknor had also wrongly adjudged Dravid out caught behind when the ball clearly hit his pad and Benson had, under controversial circumstances, given Ganguly out caught in the slips taking the fielder's word that he had completed the catch.
The Indian team management acting on the order of the Indian cricket board lodged a complaint against Bucknor with the match referee Mike Procter and Bucknor was removed from officiating in the third Test subsequently. In the post-match press conference, the Indian Test captain, Anil Kumble had famously remarked, “Only one team was playing in the spirit of the game” to which a section of the media present on that occasion broke into an unprecedented applause.