Truly Discriminating...

Well, this piece certainly seems to be a little late in the offering. Its almost like beating a dead horse, but I was quite busy when the horse was alive.

The horse in question is the second test match which was played at Sydney.

I never have seen such a disappointing game of cricket. The standard of umpiring was the worst I have ever seen. And to see the Australian captain talk about honesty and integrity was utterly comical. Ricky Ponting is turning out to be the finest cheat in the history of cricket, not to mention that he has a suitable protege in Michael Clarke.

Of course our batsmen should have shown more character by at least staying put for the last three overs, but that  doesn't absolve the Aussie's of the way they played and the way that the umpires gave out the wonderful decisions.

The only way to sum it up was in the way captain Anil Kumble put it across, "There was only one team playing in the spirit of the game". And the reply by Ricky Ponting was at the best a cheap childish reply.

To see the way Glenn McGrath came to the support of his team mates was another sad affair, especially when the whole world know that he had an incident where he spat on Brian Lara. Then we have the match referee Mike Procter who being an epitome of fairness has imposed a ban on Harbhajan. And this guy is the same match referee who banned a ex-captain of the Pakistan cricket team, the stupid Rashid Latif for claiming a false wicket. By the same yardstick, shouldn't  Ricky Ponting, Michael Clarke, Adam Gilchrist etc be banned for the false wickets they claimed? Quite simply the true racist here is Mike Procter, who is not qualified even to judge over a dispute between two kids squabbling over a piece of candy, is now deciding as serious an allegation as racism.

Since the umpires are also human, we are factoring a huge error in matches by not deciding to use technology. Those who are opposing technology by saying that it removes the human element are just sore losers, who are resisting change. They probably want to get away with false decisions for as long as possible.

Its high time the ICC (Incompetent/Idiotic/Idiosyncratic/Impotent Cricket Council) did something about the falling standards of this beautiful game.