Team India c Benson b Bucknor

In a match where V V S Laxman and Sachin Tendulkar kept their tryst with the Sydney Cricket Ground, umpire Steve Bucknor too managed to maintain his record. After some very poor umpiring by Bucknor and Mark Benson saw India go down by 122 runs and 0-2 in the series today, skipper Anil Kumble, sources said, gave Bucknor a zero in his captain’s report — just what Sourav Ganguly did in the last meeting at the SCG four years ago.

An upset Kumble, who remained stranded at the non-striker’s end on 45 as Michael Clarke took three wickets in five balls to win the Test for Australia with just seven deliveries to spare, also accused Australia of unsportsmanlike conduct. “Only one team was playing in the spirit of the game, that’s all I can say,” Kumble told a news conference. The ICC code of conduct barred him from giving vent to his anger.

With Bucknor due to stand in again at Perth — he has been named for the third Test with Asad Rauf — team manager Chetan Chauhan said the BCCI was “lodging a strong protest with the ICC to ensure that some of these incompetent umpires do not umpire in the rest of the series”.

“The way the umpiring has been conducted, the team has been agitated. A lot of decisions have gone against us. Had even 50 per cent of those come out in our favour, the result would have been different. It has really affected us and we are not saying this because we have lost this Test match. I have been informed that the Board is lodging a strong protest with the ICC to ensure that some of these incompetent umpires do not umpire in the rest of the series,” he said.

The BCCI is learnt to have already lodged a strong protest through its vice-president Rajiv Shukla and is trying to get Bucknor removed from the third Test, citing a recent precedent in Sri Lanka where umpire Rudi Keortzen was removed as umpire from the next match after he wrongly ruled Kumar Sangakaara out — Sri Lanka subsequently lost the match. Keortzen remained on the ICC posting list and came to India for the Kolkata Test where he made another blunder, giving Rahul Dravid out caught behind though the batsman hadn’t nicked the ball.

Even match referee Mike Procter is said to be unhappy with the umpiring by Bucknor and Benson in this match. They made a combined contribution to a phenomenal 12 bad decisions in the match (see box) —— a record that overshadowed some classical innings with the bat and ball.

“I can only say that I am disappointed. I think a draw would have been a fair result but everybody could see what happened. Unfortunately, I am not in a position to make further comment” Kumble said.

“It’s tough when you’ve played all forms of cricket over the last 25 years and end up on the losing side like this, it does affect you. You try and take it sportingly, but it’s very difficult and it hurts when you lose like this and then when you’ve had a great chance to win.”

From the dressing room, a few unmentionables were mouthed in disgust as the horror on field was revisited on the laptop of team analyst Dhanjaya.

As he walked back, Rahul Dravid could be seen laughing, shaking his head at Bucknor’s decision ruling him out.

Sourav Ganguly was next, adjudged caught by Michael Clarke at second slip when there was considerable doubt about the ball carrying — in fact TV replays showed the ball hit the ground. As Ganguly stood his ground, umpire Benson chose to go by Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke’s word. Ganguly left reluctantly.

The umpires saw their wrong acts on the giant screen even before Dravid and Ganguly left the ground but didn’t call back the players — England’s Kevin Peitersen was called back during India’s first Test at Lord’s.

Ponting, meanwhile, defended Bucknor and Benson. “The players haven’t lost their confidence in the umpires. Everybody realizes that they are trying to do their best,” he said.

Upstairs, in one of the glass cases at the SCG boxes, Sunil Gavaskar, head of the ICC cricket committee, was fuming. “This is utter nonsense. They have robbed the sheen of a good Test match,” he said on air.

Ricky has opened up Pandora's box - Mark Taylor

Match umpires did not hear any alleged racial abuse of Australia's Andrew Symonds during the second cricket Test against India, match referee Mike Procter said on Saturday.

India spinner Harbhajan Singh faces a charge of racial abuse against Andrew Symonds after a complaint lodged by Australian skipper Ricky Ponting to match umpires Mark Benson and Steve Bucknor during Friday's third day.

Procter is to convene a hearing into the allegations after the end of the Sydney Test on Sunday.

Procter said neither of the on-field officials were aware of the heated exchange between Harbhajan and Symonds during Friday's final session.

"The umpires did not hear anything, they did not know anything about it," he told Channel Nine television.

Harbhajan has denied he racially abused Symonds.

"I did not say anything racist. I do not know what is going on," he told Saturday's Sydney Morning Herald newspaper.

"I haven't done anything, we were just talking. It wasn't even sledging, it was just normal talk out on the cricket field. I was concentrating on my batting."

In the wake of the allegations Indian great Sunil Gavaskar accused the Australian side of double standards following Ponting's complaint.

Gavaskar has been a fierce critic of the behaviour of Ponting's men in the past and felt the Australians could dish it out but not take it in return.

"If the umpires have not heard it, then what has happened to the famous Australian saying of 'what happens on the field stays on the field'," Gavaskar said on television.

"In this instance if the umpires have not heard anything why is this line not being used for this particular incident.

"Is it only when the Australians give it to somebody (that) what happens on the field stays on the field but when they get it. Has it got to be reported? Doesn't it stay on the field?"

Former Australian captain Mark Taylor said he feared Ponting had opened a can of worms and potential tit-for-tat citings by rival captains over on-field behaviour.

"I think Ricky has opened up Pandora's box in terms of this," Taylor said.

"The Australians play tough cricket and make the odd chirp, if this goes any further I am sure there will be other times when Ricky Ponting will be on the other side of the ledger when the Australian team make the chirp."

If found guilty, Harbhajan could face a ban of between two and four Test matches or between four and eight one-day internationals.

Australian wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist accused Pakistan counterpart Rashid Latif of racial abuse during the 2003 World Cup in South Africa, but Latif was cleared because of a lack of evidence.

Australian Darren Lehmann was the first player to be banned for racial abuse when he was outed for five one-dayers over a racial remark in earshot of the Sri Lankan dressing room during the 2002/03 season.

Today's Choice of Songs

Tere Chehre main wo jaadu hai
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Kitne Bhi Tu Karle Sitam
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Maang loonga main tujhe
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This Ain't Cricket

Andrew Symonds in no Adam Gilchrist. He doesn't walk when his nick is caught. But his confession at the end of the first day of the second Test in Sydney - that he was lucky not to be given out by umpire Steve Bucknor - is a reflection of today's cricket.

Let's put his remark in perspective. Bucknor gave him the reprieve when Symonds had scored only 30 runs. His wicket could have helped Indians to wrap up Australia for less than 250 runs. Instead, Symonds rampaged to an unbeaten 162 and in the process helped his team finish at 463. That's a competitive score on a fast-paced Sydney track and the umpire's error may well have turned the tide in Australia's favour. And you thought batsmen and bowlers won or lost matches!

Today, Symonds is not an exception in world cricket. His captain, Ricky Ponting, has always maintained that the umpire ought to tell him to go if he has to. He, too, did not walk when he knew he was out to Sourav Ganguly on Wednesday.

Many others among today's cricketers play the game hard and in a manner similar to that of Ponting. Similarly, Bucknor is not an exception among umpires. He, and other umpires, have erred before and, in all probability, will in future.

When cricket was a gentleman's game, umpiring was a simpler task. The bowler and fielders appealed when they genuinely thought the batsman was out, and the batsman didn't wait for the umpire's decision when he knew he was out. Trust was built into the conduct of the game. The umpire could trust players' reactions and take a decision accordingly.

The pressure on umpires was far less than now. But cricket is a highly competitive sport today, almost a war between nations. Teams play to win at all costs. In that perspective, the Symonds' incident is a watershed.

New situations call for new methods of judgment and umpiring has to change with the times to ensure high standards of fairness. Technology can raise the quality of umpiring significantly by reducing the human error factor. The concept of a third umpire, who watches the game in the pavilion armed with technology that facilitates replays and slow-motion views from various angles, was introduced in the 1990s to minimise umpiring errors.

However, the third umpire currently has a limited role as an aide to umpires on the field. It is left to the discretion of umpires on the ground whether to seek the third umpire's opinion. That has to change. Give players the right to appeal - maybe with a limited number allowed per innings - to the third umpire.

Such checks and balances would ensure that players get a fair deal in an age when gentlemanly understanding and trust are less respected than the precision of technology.

Google Paper -- Hows that sound

AFTER colonising cyberspace, Google is going into the newspaper business.

The search engine giant is in talks with several newspaper publishers to sell space in their pages to its online clients.

This expansion will worry bosses of rival media companies who have already called for greater regulation of the fast-growing Google.

Google Print Ads is an extension of Google AdWords, the auction system that lets companies bid for a slot that appears alongside specific online word searches.

Instead of an auction, advertisers pick a newspaper online through Google and enter a bid for available advertising space on a given page and day.

But rather than offering to pay the list price, customers say what they are prepared to pay. Publishers can choose to accept or decline the offer.

Google takes a slice of the advertising revenue from every deal struck. It even offers to design the ad if the advertiser does not have the capability to do it alone. "We believe that online and offline are part of the same melting pot," Google said. "It is not an 'either or'."

Google's British advertising revenues rose roughly 40 per cent to about pound stg. 1.25 billion ($2.8 billion) this year, overtaking the publisher Trinity Mirror's income, which includes newspaper sales on top of advertising.

Print Ads, which started in the US mid-year, already supplies 600 titles, ranging from the 3000-sales-a-day Shelbyville Daily Union in Illinois to the Charlotte Observer in North Carolina, which sells 215,000.

A British newspaper boss said: "It is an interesting development with the prospect of bringing new advertisers into our newspapers. If advertisers find it to be an effective channel, then there is the prospect to form direct relationships on a more normal basis."

Be Indian. Be Proud

An Indian American has created a new social networking and community website specifically designed for the large Indian population in the US.

Palani Velusamy, creator of myindianplace.com, realised that the Indian community in the US, which is mostly highly educated and affluent, did not really have a central meeting place totally devoted to their culture.

"Despite the fact that there is a large Indian community in the US, there are not a lot of sites that are dedicated to the Indian community. After visiting MySpace.com, it occurred to me that a site specialising in various ethnic groups might be really beneficial," he said.

Visitors can create profiles, share pictures, socialise, and keep abreast of news that is important to the Indian community, a press release said.

"It is so great that someone has created this kind of site for Indians," said Rakesh Ahuja, a member. "I mean, just knowing that the majority of people that you are going to be meeting on the myindianplace.com site are going to be familiar with my culture mean a lot to me. It is really cool and I really like it. It is my hope that word spreads quickly about this site and that Indians here in this country all use it," he said.

The motto on the website is: Be Indian. Be Proud.

"As a culture, Indians who have grown up in the states are a unique people," said Palani. "We love America, and most of us really enjoy the way of life here. However, most of us also want to keep our ties with some of the old ways and certainly want to meet other Indians in order to socialise. In some areas of the country, that can be very difficult if the Indian community is not all that large," he said.