News 
Front page stories
National network
International
Analysis
Editorials
Supplements
Headstart
Lifemate
|
Email
Newsletter
|
Express Interactive
Chat
rooms
Ebate
|
Letter
of the week
|
||
Inept batting and captaincy - not biased umpiring
As a cricket lover and an indian resident in australia, i feel that i must respond to the widespread allegations of biased umpiring which have appeared in the indian press following india's comprehensive defeat by australia in the 1st cricket test. justin langer's dismissal in the first innings demonstrates clearly that the umpires may have made mistakes, but they certanly were not biased. whilst tendulkar's dismissal in the second innings may have been debatable, the real question is why the "best batsman in the world" took his eye off the ball rather than standing up and playing it with the full face of the bat. i doubt that sir donald bradman, with whom tendulkar is frequently compared, would have played such a poor shot or indeed no shot at all.The major factors for india's loss were not biased umpiring but rather:
- The comprehensive failure of the top order batting.
- A perplexing batting order that has dravid, tedulkar and ganguly coming in at 4,5 and 6 respectively who were put on the defensive after being stranded by the top order after the early fall of 2 wickets for 9 and 2 wickets for 3 respectively.
- Inept and unduly defensive captaincy - in particular, after having australia at 4 wickets for 52 on the first morning, persisting with second string bowlers was bizarre to say the least. the other ill-2fated decision was to bat so negatively in the final session of the second day that hardly any runs were being scored and the strategy could only have downside ie the loss of wickets which duly eventuated.
Rahul Gupta