Indian Eleven Lose to Australian Thirteen at Sydney Test

First time ever in the history of Test cricket Indian Eleven lost to Australian Thirteen. Yes, for the first time Australians played with thirteen players instead of the normal 11. The two umpires Mark Benson and Steve Bucknor were playing for Australia. Steve Bucknor taking the lead in getting the Indian players out. According to me Steve Bucknor is the Man of the match at Sydney. Atleast eight decisions went against India at the Sydney test.

From day one of the Sydney Test the umpires were playing for Australia. Not only the two on field umpires but even the third umpire.

The fourth and fifth day were the most dramatic. Harbhajan was accused of being racist towards Symonds on fourth day of the test. Atleast on this occassion both the umpires did not hear Harbhajan passing any racist comments. But at the end of fifth days play Harbhajan gets banned for 3 test matches. This seems to be a definite ploy to keep Harbhajan out of remaining tests because he was consistently getting the Australian captain out. Ricky Ponting had become Harbhajan's bunny. They didn't have answers to his bowling and hence they planned to get him involved in a verbal duel so as to create a case against him. Even though there was no evidence against Harbhajan to prove that he indulged in racial slur, he faces the ban.

On fifth day both Rahul Dravid and Saurav Ganguly are given out when actually they are not out. Steve Bucknor ruled Rahul Dravid caught behind when it was very clear that the ball just brushed the pads and was no where close to the edge of the bat. Ganguly's wicket was the most dreadful one. Ganguly nicked a ball to the slips and Michael Clarke did not catch it cleanly. Umpire Mark Benson was not sure and he chose to confirm the catch with Ricky Ponting (opposition captain) instead of the third umpire. Maybe from third test onwards Indian appeal should be targetted to Ricky Ponting and not the on field umpires.

I am not at all impressed with the BCCI. The country's pride is at stake and the BCCI has not been vocal enough against all the cheating that has been meted out to the Indian players.

Cheaters have the last laugh.