Appeal Against Bad Umpiring By Steve Bucknor

All Indian Cricket Fans were horrified by the terrible decision made by steve bucknor to give tendulkar out when the ball was clearly going well over the stumps during the First Test Match between India and Australia. This was his first mistake and can be forgiven as a human being. But what about other bad decisions given by him?

During the last test match ,the Indians were peeved with the Bucknor for turning down appeals against Justin Langer and Damien Martyn on the final day which were clear-cut cases of leg-before decisions. If these decisions were right, might be India would have won the series!

And now once again he had given bad decisions during the First ODI played during VB series.First he didn't give Andrew Symonds LBW when he was on 58, further he went ahead making 88 runs. He was reluctant to give Wides when India was batting. Thus he didn't give India 4 Genuine Wides.

Probably for the first time, we have realized how badly does an umpire decision influence the match!

And it is surely unjust that the final result could be determined not by the excellence of the cricket, but the ineptness of the umpiring. It brought two key issues into the spotlight, which the ICC would do well to consider seriously: age and technology.

It is not ageist to say that age should be a factor that should be considered in umpiring. It is a demanding profession that requires physical fitness, speed of response, sharpness of sight and depth perception. It is not prejudice, but scientific fact, to say that all of these diminish as one grows older. To stand in the field for six hours, concentrating acutely all throughout, shifting attention within micro-seconds from the bowler's crease (for no-balls) to the batsman's crease, factoring in a dozen different factors in a matter of seconds, and often dealing with the emotions of players and crowds, is a gruelling exercise. Both the body and the mind have to be in peak condition for it.