**Official** Australia in India Thread

[Swervy]

I just find it very difficult to see how cricket can be called a professional sport when such mistakes are so common. I can't think of any other sport where referee/umpiring mistakes are such a common thing.

how about Football (soccer) and American Football....the latter especially prides itself on getting things right etc (they have replays for certain things on which a call can be overturned) and yet referee errors still occur frequently...and yet the decisions are accepted as a part of the game.

In football, how many times do we see an offside being called incorrectly,or a penalty decision being made incorrectly. Unfortunately,this is a part of most sports.

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

just find it very difficult to see how cricket can be called a professional sport when such mistakes are so common. I can't think of any other sport where referee/umpiring mistakes are such a common thing.

Well, I'll try a few. In tennis technology is used but most decisions are left in the hands of various officials. In baseball all decisions including many things which require a great deal of guesswork are left in the hands of human officials. In every football code I can think of MOST things are still left in the hands of human officials, with the only real exception being rugby codes where video replays are used very regularly. In fact, I can't think of any professional sport which doesn't include the human element and possibility of mistakes from the officials, and in all of those sports mistakes are made and people get upset about them. I don't think it is of any significant detriment to the game.

 

[maxpower]

how about Football (soccer) and American Football....the latter especially prides itself on getting things right etc (they have replays for certain things on which a call can be overturned) and yet referee errors still occur frequently...and yet the decisions are accepted as a part of the game.

In football, how many times do we see an offside being called incorrectly,or a penalty decision being made incorrectly. Unfortunately,this is a part of most sports.

True error's are part of game, however one thing I find it odd is that umpires in cricket are not really critized for the mistakes. In football if a ref keeps making mistakes not only is he critized by commentrators a lot, but the league does take notice and the Ref does not get a chance to participate in playoff games and is given less games to work on.

 

[telsor]

True error's are part of game, however one thing I find it odd is that umpires in cricket are not really critized for the mistakes.

Have you been reading the past 10 pages or so?

accusations of bias and bribes..doesn't that count as criticism?

Umpires do get assessed, rated and over time moved off the contracted list.

If you moved them down quickly then it'd be a rare umpire who 'survived' more than 1 test!

 

[maxpower]

Have you been reading the past 10 pages or so?

accusations of bias and bribes..doesn't that count as criticism?

Umpires do get assessed, rated and over time moved off the contracted list.

If you moved them down quickly then it'd be a rare umpire who 'survived' more than 1 test!

nope i did not read the last 10 page for sure, criticism by commentrators and bribe acusation by fans on some cricket board are 2 diff things.

 

[Swervy]

so what does everyone think will be a score that Australia will want to get to before declaring (assuming they arent dismissed cheaply)...22 overs left today and a lead of 301....might be looking at Australia getting another 70 today...I would then think they will bat until lunch tomorrow and be looking for a lead of 470 to 500, leaving India 5 sessions to bat out on a wearing pitch.

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

Yep, provided the scoring rate remains decent and Australia don't get bowled out I think they'll be looking to bat until lunch tomorrow and set a 400+ target. Apparently the highest ever fourth innings total to win in India is 272 or so, so anything above 400 is going to take a miracle.

 

[Swervy]

104 for 4 now....can India restrict Australia to a lead of no more than 400. That will make it interesting

 

[Swervy]

wouldnt mind left arm bowlers to come on now...get some rough patches out side the off stump for Warnie

 

[Dasa]

how about Football (soccer) and American Football....the latter especially prides itself on getting things right etc (they have replays for certain things on which a call can be overturned) and yet referee errors still occur frequently...and yet the decisions are accepted as a part of the game.

In football, how many times do we see an offside being called incorrectly,or a penalty decision being made incorrectly. Unfortunately,this is a part of most sports.

Ok, maybe I wasn't entirely on track regarding other sports being that better. However, I'd still rather see errors taken out of the game as much as possible, and if this requires the use of technology, I'm all for it. I can't see why some people are so stubborn regarding technology. Is it because the 'charm' of the game might be lost, or what?

Anyway, back to the game. I think the Aussies will bat out to lunch providing they aren't bowled out before. This should leave a target of 450-500, which is almost impossible. I'll be hoping for a game like this one .

 

[telsor]

nope i did not read the last 10 page for sure, criticism by commentrators and bribe acusation by fans on some cricket board are 2 diff things.

Are you suggesting umpires should be (effectively) appointed by the media?

 

[Neil Pickup]

Haven't see Sky Sports' 90-second highlight package of day three yet, but from what I saw of day two, Chopra looked well and truly dead and gone.

 

[aussie_beater]

India is pretty much out of this game. Any target above 250 in the 4th innings in India has been achieved rarely.....the highest being 276. And Australia already has a lead of 350+, so even if they get bowled out for 50 more runs, its game over for India. And India cannot bat out 5 sessions for a draw.....there are too many strokemakers in the Indian team for that. The only thing that can happen is India can deny victory to Australia till some time into the 5th day.

And umpiring incompetence is just that....incomptence. Yes, Bucknor and Bowden have made good decisions but the bad decisions will always be looked into more closely, that's just human nature..... but to say they are biased is just stupid. Bucknor in my opinion needs to be removed from the elite panel because he has not gone through a series as far as I can recall, without giving some shocking decisions.Not sure who needs to come in though.

 

[Son Of Coco]

No, half the selectors come from the N.S.W. media. The Queensland selectors can't be seen to show bias, or otherwise there is an uproar from the South about their less-credentialed (sp?) players playing ahead of the far more talented Queenslanders and players from other states.

Less-credentialed players like Clarke?

 

[Son Of Coco]

Bucknor the cheat first 2 tendulkar then to chopra

I saw the replay and it looked plumb to me - then again you could just cry cheat everytime one of your players is given out LBW!

 

[Hala]

I don't see how technology would help with LBWs when alot of the time many people can't even agree whether the player was out or not out after seeing 1000 replays of the incident. I also find it surprising that people expect umpires to get it right every time when even with the help of still replays and tram lines etc there is still much debate on a decision, on many occasions on TV after almost 10 minutes of something akin to a forensic analysis of the potential LBW there is still no clear cut decision in some cases. This seemed to be the case with the Clarke LBW (imo it was going high) and I think I speak for most cricketers when I say that having a 10 minute stoppage for every LBW decision would not be in the best interests of the game.

Yes there have been some poor decisions given so far in the match but one might argue that they've evened themselves out. I personally thought that Langer was hard done by in the 2nd innings (but escaped on the first ball of the first) and Pathan was definatly not out, whereas Patel survived two clear cut decisions first with McGrath's LBW appeal on the 2nd day and then later on with a back pad appeal where it clearly got an edge onto his pads. Whinging about decisions is not going to make them better, Billy Bowden and Steve Bucknor has proven themselves to be immensley capable umpires in the past and I'm sure over the course of the series will more than make up for the few mistakes they've made so far.

One interesting observation that I heard made by Keith Stackpole (former Australian opener) who gives expert comments on ABC local radio was that he talked to Billy Bowden the at the end of the 2nd days play and Bowden commentated that it was very difficult to differentiate between the ball hitting the pad, glove, bat etc with the immense noise that the Indian crowd makes and he advocated having the stump mike ear pieces which they tested out during the Champions Throphy to make these decisions easier.

 

[Neil Pickup]

As far as first posts go, that's pretty damn good.

Welcome to the party.

 

[Son Of Coco]

Suit yourself - someone else might.
In my view it is quite insane if you're willing to base more on this single innings, just because it was the most recent and the favoured player is a youngster, rather than the fact that Lehmann has gone just about everywhere and conquered some of the hardest conditions you can ask a modern cricketer to play in, relative to Clarke who has achieved next-to-nothing in a shortish career to date; he's not even been good enough to average 40 on the flat decks in Australia. Lehmann, meanwhile, has averaged in the early 50s on them and higher still on the far tougher wickets of Headingley.
And no, of course I didn't watch the 2 days - not that I'd especially want to.
I really hope Clarke gets torn to pieces in the rest of the series, just for the sheer overhype of a player whose achievements are moderate before this single innings.

While you seem to be under the impression that your views on the game are somewhat 'revolutionary' Richard, you obviously have been watching a different Clarke (or not watching as the case may be) to the rest of us over the past year or so. His averages in First Class cricket may not be stunning, but every time he's made the step up to international cricket he has performed capably. Admittedly, up until now, he's only played one-day cricket but 150 on debut against India on their home decks surely indicates that he's a player of considerable talent!?

As for the flat decks in Australia, what are the pitches like in India then? They're renowned for being turners, but if you're describing Australian wickets as flat then I presume you're going to come up with a new term to describe the lack of assistance usually given to pace bowlers in the sub-continent? Consequentially, by not watching the match I presume that you've already chalked up another few wickets in Glen McGrath's 'lucky' column - it's a pity you didn't tune in, you may have seen a good example of what a great many of us on here were talking about when we described what makes him a good bowler as opposed to your ideas on his ability.

You're hoping that Clarke gets torn apart so that it'll back up the nonsense you've been spouting about him for the last few months, but let's face it, if many of the ideas you have were actually backed up by what we see on the field cricket would be a very bizarre game indeed!

 

[ReallyCrazy]

I can always understand bad umpiring decisions as part of the game (even though at first I'm little ****ed). Bowden, I feel is a very good umpire. However, its time for Bucknor to go. I'm not saying this because I beleive he's got Indian bias (I don't think so at all...its just that by coincidence India have been on the receiving end most times). I'm saying this because I've seen him act very unprofessionally a couple of times, like the way he was mocking Dravid in Australia. An umpire of an international sport should not act like this. He's got to go.

 

[Mr Casson]

While you seem to be under the impression that your views on the game are somewhat 'revolutionary' Richard, you obviously have been watching a different Clarke (or not watching as the case may be) to the rest of us over the past year or so. His averages in First Class cricket may not be stunning, but every time he's made the step up to international cricket he has performed capably. Admittedly, up until now, he's only played one-day cricket but 150 on debut against India on their home decks surely indicates that he's a player of considerable talent!?

As for the flat decks in Australia, what are the pitches like in India then? They're renowned for being turners, but if you're describing Australian wickets as flat then I presume you're going to come up with a new term to describe the lack of assistance usually given to pace bowlers in the sub-continent? Consequentially, by not watching the match I presume that you've already chalked up another few wickets in Glen McGrath's 'lucky' column - it's a pity you didn't tune in, you may have seen a good example of what a great many of us on here were talking about when we described what makes him a good bowler as opposed to your ideas on his ability.

You're hoping that Clarke gets torn apart so that it'll back up the nonsense you've been spouting about him for the last few months, but let's face it, if many of the ideas you have were actually backed up by what we see on the field cricket would be a very bizarre game indeed!

Mate, that is exactly what I think. I just don't have the brain to put thoughts to words.