Can it be mere coincidence that Australia manages to win several decisions (including many key ones at crucial stages of the game), either when bowling or batting when the opposition is India and the umpire is Bucknor? I am sure Australia are the beneficiaries against other opposition too when other umpires are standing, due to a combination of their finely tuned unappealing appealing methods and umpiring errors brought on by Aussie pressure tactics and expert psychology. Bucknor has rightly been removed (and not a minute too soon) from umpiring in the next Test. He has brought this upon himself by his appalling decisions which a county umpire would not have made. If you bought some apples and spotted a bad one, you would have no hesitation in tossing the imperfect one out. You would not be thinking about the possible smear to the reputation of apples in general, neither would you stop eating apples. Likewise, here you have an umpire whose competence has been shown up bigtime. Surely the last thing you want is to ignore his recurring mistakes so that he can go on committing more errors in the future. And people aren’t going to stop watching matches just because he has been ditched either. If the wrongful decisions of an umpire (Bucknor or anyone else) are constantly affecting the outcome of important Test matches (whoever the contestants may be and wherever the games are being played), surely it is in the interests of the game to remove that official so that the final results of all contests are a fair reflection of what has actually transpired on the pitch. And surely Australia would prefer to win games without the help of dubious decisions or are they incapable of doing so?

The cricket reports last night and today (9/1/08) on the B.B.C. news bulletins was all about India’s use of her newly found financial cricketing clout to get Bucknor removed from the 3rd Test. The fact that Bucknor was by far the worse of the 2 umpires, committing the majority of the howlers, mainly against India (and which went a long way towards helping the Aussies register their hollow victory, thus ruining what might have been the most absorbing game in years for the viewing public worldwide) was conveniently forgotten. Bucknor, let me remind one and all, has been socking it to Team India for close to a decade now. The fact that he laid the Indians low one more time at the SCG was simply another instance that India had to grin and bear and given the years of practice they have had in remaining mute and supine in the face of Bucknor’s unrelenting onslaught against Team India, the latter were certainly well accustomed to such treatment and should therefore have stoically and quietly suffered the punishment heaped upon them. The fact that the Australian team played extremely unsporting and coercive cricket over the entire 5 days, led by a captain obsessed with winning to the extent that nothing else mattered and who used every trick in the book and some new ones, was not even mentioned. The fact that veracity had been in short supply on the host’s side, either when batting or fielding, did not merit a mention The fact that the Indian tourists had been treated most shoddily, accorded scant respect or niceties by the antipodean team did not even feature. The fact that an Indian player had been hung, drawn and quartered for being racially abusive (on the say so of an Australian player, well schooled in the aggressive arts by his captain and management) without tangible audio or visual evidence was not alluded to. It was Indian cricketing muscle, we are led to believe, that had got the hapless Bucknor removed and they did this simply because they could. It was all about financial power. The British may have been in India for nearly 200 years and one would have expected a modicum of objectivity and realism on the part of well paid BBC reporters but no - India have (through specious means) got rid of the poor beleaguered Bucknor for all the wrong reasons and worse, is threatening to use her muscle again on the Harbhajan issue. How, in spite of all the revelations of unsavoury tactics and gamesmanship employed by the Australian team and the abysmal decisions made by the umpires against India, has BBC sport managed to distort the picture, putting the Indians in the doghouse? One would have expected a little more honesty and even sympathy from the B.B.C, given that the Poms (still the Aussies favourite whipping boys but only just) are routinely taken to task both on and off the field whenever they tour Australia. Could there be another politically incorrect reason for the desire to knock the Indians and let the Australians off the hook? It would not surprise me in the least. I shall leave it to you to work that one out.
This sorry episode has been a travesty - an affront to common decency and politeness; a rebuke to fair play; totally devoid of the last vestiges of charm and disappointingly wanting in veracity. The only good thing about the debacle is that it has shown up Team Australia (world champion titles notwithstanding) most revealingly in her true colours for all the world to see. That has been India’s singular achievement and other Test playing nations should recognise this huge favour Team India has done for them, the game at large and all right thinking, fair-minded cricket fans the world over.

It's black and white and brown
Well done again, Steve Bucknor. You have helped kick brown ass one more time but on this occasion you got your comeuppance and not before time too. You have been socking it to Team India for years and one wonders how you celebrate your pitch murders when you wind down in the evenings, reminiscing on your growing list of Indian victims, no doubt. Remember the time you gave Tendulkar out lbw after the ball hit his helmet? I know the master blaster is not tall (you might be but then your sense of fair play is inversely proportional to your height) but even Tendulkar stands taller than the stumps. But you cannot possibly be racist, can you, Mr. Bucknor because you are black. *** Edit by moderator: this portion of comment was derogatory and not pertinent to the topic on hand *** The voluminous evidence of your ignoble deeds against Team India over the years is more than sufficient for a Bollywood Blockbuster. It could appropriately be entitled ‘I’m big, I’m black, I’m Bucknor but I’m not too keen on brownies’ – and we are not talking about girl guides here.

Update: Seems like the tour is going to continue.

I’m sure money is a big factor too

I wish Indian cricket fans who are willing to bet millions of $$$ would divert some of that to paying the $ 2 million fine and have India cancel the tour. Enough is enough!

The alleged incident when Harbhajan was supposed to have uttered the M-word occurred very conveniently for the Australians when Tendulkar and Harbhajan were in the midst of a dominating partnership. Desperate for a wicket, the devious, churlish and unsporting Ponting shrewdly orchestrated the ‘incident’ and like a whingeing brat ( ironically something the Aussies are fond of labeling the Poms as ) went running to the umpires (who incidentally had heard nothing and neither had Tendulkar ) to lodge his vehement protestations. The ruse worked as Harbhajan, who had hitherto been batting impeccably, was out soon after.The pioneering Ponting had taken gamesmanship to new levels. This was one of the few instances when the assistance of the two umpires, Benson and Bucknor was not required in order to obtain an Indian wicket.
Yes, Ponting is a hero to rabid Aussie fans who refuse to acknowledge the truth but not in the eyes of the objective. watching world.

Runa,
Suspended as in won't play unless the matter is resolved. If they cancelled it, they wouldn't play no matter what.
India is usually pretty hesitant to cancel tours for a variety of reasons including the "prestige" but I'm sure money is a big factor too. $2 million is something the BCCI should be willing to forgo given the circumstances. Not sure they will.

Suspension != cancellation right?
What is preventing them from cancelling the tour - the threat of the $ 2million fine?