Skyliner
International 12th Man
4 English umpires on the panel; Pakistan only has one, NZ only has one, Sri Lanka only has one, India only has one, South Africa only has one, West Indies have none, Zimbabwe have none. Australia have 3.
So are English umpires head and shoulders above umpires from the rest of the cricketing world? No, no they are not. They are over re-presented on the panel. Nigel Llong and Richard Illingworth are not up to it. They've been the curse that has haunted NZ all summer. The Brisbane and Perth test's were marred by howlers, and the blame and derision was largely heaped on BMac for supposedly using his reviews rashly. On to Adelaide where Llong was this time up in the 3rd Umpires room presiding over one of the worst howlers seen for many a decade when he inexplicably failed to give Nathan Lyon out despite clear hot-spot evidence.
Now Illingworth has popped up again to turn the 1st test NZ vs Australia at the Basin Reserve into a shambles. Two incorrect no-balls calls when the bowler has a huge part of his heel behind the line are inexcusable, and one of them resulting in a catastrophic howler that has cast a pall over the test and reduced it to a farce.
When sport becomes farce, people lose interest in it. Illingworth's eyes are shot. He can't tell where a bowlers foot is in relation to the crease.
Then we have another Englishman, Umpire Gould, who seems to like to be a celebrity and make himself the object of attention. He turned the Mitchell Marsh incident in the 3rd Chappell Hadlee ODI into a farce by taking a month of Sundays to go upstairs, blathering away to the NZers and the 3rd Umpire for what seemed an eternity when he should have made a quicker and clearer decision on the way forward. As he dawdled, temperatures on the field rose.
Llong and Illingworth are incompetent, or something. They need to be removed from the Elite Panel forthwith. If you can't make clear-cut calls correctly, how the hell can it be said that you are an 'Elite' umpire.
So are English umpires head and shoulders above umpires from the rest of the cricketing world? No, no they are not. They are over re-presented on the panel. Nigel Llong and Richard Illingworth are not up to it. They've been the curse that has haunted NZ all summer. The Brisbane and Perth test's were marred by howlers, and the blame and derision was largely heaped on BMac for supposedly using his reviews rashly. On to Adelaide where Llong was this time up in the 3rd Umpires room presiding over one of the worst howlers seen for many a decade when he inexplicably failed to give Nathan Lyon out despite clear hot-spot evidence.
Now Illingworth has popped up again to turn the 1st test NZ vs Australia at the Basin Reserve into a shambles. Two incorrect no-balls calls when the bowler has a huge part of his heel behind the line are inexcusable, and one of them resulting in a catastrophic howler that has cast a pall over the test and reduced it to a farce.
When sport becomes farce, people lose interest in it. Illingworth's eyes are shot. He can't tell where a bowlers foot is in relation to the crease.
Then we have another Englishman, Umpire Gould, who seems to like to be a celebrity and make himself the object of attention. He turned the Mitchell Marsh incident in the 3rd Chappell Hadlee ODI into a farce by taking a month of Sundays to go upstairs, blathering away to the NZers and the 3rd Umpire for what seemed an eternity when he should have made a quicker and clearer decision on the way forward. As he dawdled, temperatures on the field rose.
Llong and Illingworth are incompetent, or something. They need to be removed from the Elite Panel forthwith. If you can't make clear-cut calls correctly, how the hell can it be said that you are an 'Elite' umpire.
