I’ve followed Australian cricket for as long as I can remember and never, in all that time, have I been embarrassed by winning a game – until today. The Aussies claimed victory with eight minutes to go on the fifth day of the Sydney Test and, in doing so, equalled their own record for the most consecutive Test victories at 16.

Looking at the straight statistics, it was a bottler of a game, five centuries, Brett Lee’s five-wicket bowling performance, the return to form of Sachin Tendulkar, Australia coming back after trailing on the first innings and a Test match that went down to the final overs of the final day. You couldn’t ask for more.

Sadly – tragically almost – the statistics don’t begin to tell the story of this match. This game will be remembered for two things. Firstly, the allegations made against Harbhajan Singh and, secondly, the fact that the umpires spoilt a tremendous battle between two proud cricketing nations and almost certainly changed the outcome.

'The mistakes that Steve Bucknor and Mark Benson made were not just slightly contentious ones, revealed only after repeated slow motion replays. They were howlers'


It is staggering to believe that in these times of consummate professionalism in cricket, there could be such an appalling performance by two supposed elite umpires. The mistakes that Steve Bucknor and Mark Benson made were not just slightly contentious ones, revealed only after repeated slow motion replays. They were howlers.

Even worse, as the game went on they started to exhibit real signs of being rattled to the point where umpire  Benson called on the video umpire to adjudicate a run out when Harbhajan was not just in, he was almost past the stumps.

The ultimate example of how lacking in confidence the umpires were, however, came when Benson ended up asking Ricky Ponting whether Michael Clarke had caught Sourav Ganguly, who had stood his ground and waited to be given out, even though Clarke had claimed the catch. Ponting gave Ganguly out, however, replays could neither confirm or deny the catch – so much for the benefit of the doubt!

The Ganguly decision, however, was comparatively lacking in controversy compared to many others in the game. The last day added to the wealth of cock-ups committed in the game with the struggling Rahul Dravid copping a shocker - being given out after clearly missing the ball.

There were as many as a dozen really bad decisions during this game and, although they affected both sides, India's cause was the moret seriously harmed. The Ponting and Symonds decisions in the first innings cost at least 160 runs and possibly many more as we will never know how the loss of those two would have affected the Aussie tail and, more importantly, the outcome of the game.

The Aussies also wore some bad ones, none worse than the decisions that belatedly ended Ponting’s innings and Sachin also survived a pretty adjacent lbw decision very early in his majestic first innings knock. But on balance, the Aussies came out in front. It’s hard to argue that there was a deliberate bias, but the constant pressure applied by the Aussies probably created more of those errors.

Regardless, it was a Test that Australia did not deserve to win. In reality, a draw would have been the best outcome with neither side benefiting from one of the worst umpiring performances in recent memory.

Bucknor’s performances over the last couple of years have been deteriorating to a point where it is now cringeworthy to watch him in action. Benson, at least, has (comparative) youth on his side, but he should be sent back to umpire county games for a while to regain some confidence.

It is now incumbent upon the ICC to fix this mess. Bucknor is due to stand in the next Test in Perth and one could hardly blame the Indian side for feeling very nervous about that prospect. Let's hope that that sanity prevails, but don't hold your breath.