India's new Bucknor??

However nice a person may Kumar Dharmasena be, as an Indian cricket fan, you can’t help but despise him. And this goes a long way back, right to 1996 World Cup semi-final where he, along with Sanath Jayasuriya was India’s destroyer in chief.

And he is back, it seems. This time as an umpire.  It seemed as though he made his intentions clear in his very first match, his very first lbw decision, as he adjudged Sachin Tendulkar out, when the replays clearly showed it otherwise.

Cut to 22^nd August, same venue (where else, in Dambulla) and he was on fire again. First up was Virendra Sehwag. Kulasekara’s delivery nipped back off the seam and hit Sehwag’s pads. One could see his off-stump, a glimpse of the middle stump, it had struck on his knee roll, still Dharmasena didn’t  see any reason to give the batsman the benefit of doubt(as is normally the case with lbws, until you are absolutely sure that it is hitting the wickets, umpires don’t give them) and ruled him out.

Next up was Karthik. He poked at a Kulasekara delivery, Sangakkara, after missing a lollipop take off Randiv in the previous match, took it comfortably. Even on the first glance one couldn’t hear a thing, but it seemed Dharmasena was all ears for any Sri Lankan appeals, and gave Karthik out immediately.

Then came Suresh Raina. He poked at a Mathews delivery. Sri Lankans went up immediately, but again, there wasn’t much of a noise and for me, Asad Rauf correctly denied the Lankans. Although the Snicko did show a very, very slight tickle, it was very different from the clear deflection there is in these cases.

Gutted as the Sri Lankans were, they couldn’t wait to appeal to Dharmasena!! Next over, Raina missed a ball even more clearly than the previous one, but things were different this time round. The man in question was Dharmasena, and up went his finger, though at this point, not to my surprise.

And to wrap things up, just as Yuvraj was breaking loose, Asad Rauf adjudged him lbw even though the impact was outside off-stump.

One more thing. I can’t help wondering that under Sangakkara’s regime, Sri Lankans seem to have dumped their Spirit of Cricket award winning play and they bear a strong resemblance to the 2007 Aussie outfit that played out the Sydney test drama to perfection. The voracious way they were appealing, even though it was absolutely clear that the batsman was safe, if it was referee Mike Dennis, things would’ve been interesting!!!  No one is asking them not to appeal, but fans are not fools that they can’t see it, can’t feel the over-aggression which the Lankans have come to display. Which strengthens my argument of stopping Ind-SL matches for at least 2 years. Why should we go and help SL board make money, when we, in return are getting this??

I am not defending India’s poor play, but if there are no Sachin, Gambhir, Harbhajan, Zaheer and umpires like Dharmasena have a great day, invariably, defeat will be ours.

Until now, it has been yet another pointless series that has only added to player fatigue. In addition to the short ball, Rohit Sharma has discovered yet another flaw-that of planting his front foot right across the stumps.  If someone like Mathews can exploit that, then good luck Rohit versus the likes of Steyn, Anderson, Asif. None of our youngsters have rose to the occasion-in our only win so far, it was the experience of Sehwag and Dhoni that got us through.  Enough chances have been given to Karthik and Vijay, now it is time for Robin Uthappa to be India’s reserve one-day opener.  

Of course, I don’t think it will work if there is a certain Kumar Dharmasena umpiring