Umpires chosen for ashes series

Aleen Dar, Rudi Koertzin, Billy Bowden and the somewhat dubious inclusion of the ominous Steve Bucknor.

Personally i would say that all the umpires bar Buckno rare excellent. However Bucknor is a very dodgy decision to me after his performance on the England tour of South Africa..... Not best pleased at that little development myself. He is rather suspect imo and shows bias in opposition to england, not a wise decision at all by the ICC imo...we shall see what happens.

The pressure is very much on Bucknor to perform, thi scould lead to him showing bias in favour of england for one ? hehe we can hope

i dislike Dar, even since he gave Vaughan out caught behind at Antigua 04. Vaughan obviously missed the ball (by a long, long way). Ever since then ive been very quick to critise him. has anyone noticed he has a habit of of watching where the bowler lands and not the action

On a side note i read on CricInfo that Taufel was umpiring the Sri Lanka and Windies Tests, i was just wondering who was the other guys. They said that Harper was joining Taufel for the ODI Series, so is it him???

taufel is also a bit suspect imo, i dont mind harper as hes quite good, what of david sheppard?

i reckon simon is the best going around to be fair. No disrespect Billy

i think hair is the best to be honest, although really they are all pretty consistant if you ask me, maybe barring bucknor from that category

Nice to see Bowden picked for the Big series, he tries to stay as neutral as possible and gives the crowd some extra entertainment.

sledger said:

taufel is also a bit suspect imo, i dont mind harper as hes quite good, what of david sheppard?

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Sheppard is retiring

Link said:

i dislike Dar, even since he gave Vaughan out caught behind at Antigua 04. Vaughan obviously missed the ball (by a long, long way). Ever since then ive been very quick to critise him. has anyone noticed he has a habit of of watching where the bowler lands and not the action

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What's the point? We all make mistakes. And you're judging all future performances on one past mistake?

Chaminda,

Taufel is rated the best by many and you rate Harper the best.

Guess that theory of yours that Sri Lanka always gets the worst umps has gone straight out the window. He he he.

social said:

Chaminda,

Taufel is rated the best by many and you rate Harper the best.

Guess that theory of yours that Sri Lanka always gets the worst umps has gone straight out the window. He he he.

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But they're Australians, social. They're always biased against Sri Lankans.

Keep up, would you?

Bucknor gets criticised and no one defends him ? strange.

Deja moo said:

Bucknor gets criticised and no one defends him ? strange.

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What's the point?

Those that dislike him will always point to some isolated incident that has disadvantaged the team that they support as evidence of his incompetence, whilst conveniently ignoring the fact that he has been almost universally regarded as one of the best umpires for many years.

social said:

What's the point?

Those that dislike him will always point to some isolated incident that has disadvantaged the team that they support as evidence of his incompetence, whilst conveniently ignoring the fact that he has been almost universally regarded as one of the best umpires for many years.

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And those that like him will of course refer to those as isolated incidents. Whats reputation got to do with it? Everyone ages. No one can perform at a high level consistently for long. Some realise it and retire gracefully. And some dont.

I think its a shame, but Bucknor is past his prime, his decisions whilst in SA were consitantly poor, and disadvantaged both teams, me and most of my firends agreed that the end of that tour would be a good time to bow out, but apparently this was not the case. Anyway, lets hope he has a better tour this time round and we get to see the umpire he used to be!

Deja moo said:

Bucknor gets criticised and no one defends him ? strange.

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If he's being criticised for getting things wrong then that's OK.

It's when he's accused of bias and deliberately making mistakes that he should be defended.

Now that Venkat is gone, they don't seem to be any international Indian umpires eh?

If the only alternative is AV Jayaprakash that's a good thing!
Shame Bucknor couldn't have taken a leaf out of Venkat's book, really... he'll always be remembered now as a very fine Umpire who went on too long... and possibly much too long, if he's Umpiring in 2007 when he should have retired in 2002.

sledger said:

However Bucknor is a very dodgy decision to me after his performance on the England tour of South Africa.....

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His performances have been poor for much longer than last winter.

Link said:

i dislike Dar, even since he gave Vaughan out caught behind at Antigua 04. Vaughan obviously missed the ball (by a long, long way). Ever since then ive been very quick to critise him. has anyone noticed he has a habit of of watching where the bowler lands and not the action

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I too dislike him, for giving Trescothick not out at Antigua '04. Trescothick obviously gloved the ball.
Are you similarly raged against Jayaprakash for having the stupidity to uphold the handled-the-ball appeal at Bangalore '01?
Aleem Dar is a very fine Umpire and, like even Harold Bird, he will make mistakes. The more matches he stands in, the more mistakes he'll make. His ratio of good:bad is still excellent.