Former Indian all-rounder, Irfan Pathan went on to recall that the umpiring howlers from the 2008 Sydney Test between India and Australia, lashing out at Steve Bucknor for his below-par performance in the controversial match. Steve Bucknor and Mark Benson were the two official umpires in the match and made some huge mistakes that went against India and they lost the match by 122 runs, despite taking a sizeable first-innings lead.
Even after the 12 years of the controversial Test, Bucknor finally acknowledged that he made two mistakes which “might have cost India the match”. Team India had registered complaints against Bucknor and Benson’s umpiring in the match which led to their removal for the next Test at Perth which India went on to win by 72 runs but a draw in Adelaide saw Australia clinch the series 2-1.
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Talking about the same, during a show on Star Sports, Irfan Pathan said, “No matter how much you accept your mistakes, what’s done is done, we lost the Test match. And losing a Test match, just because of umpiring errors? Not going to make any difference, no matter what umpires say now. This Sydney Test match, it was not just one mistake.”
He further elaborated, There were about seven mistakes that cost us the game. There were mistakes where Andrew Symonds was playing, and he got out nearly, I remember, three times, and the umpire didn’t give him out. It was not just frustration. For the first time, I saw Indian cricketers were angry. Fans had only one thing in mind that they [umpires] were doing it purposely. Obviously, as a cricketer, we can’t think like that.”
On Friday, it was announced that the 13th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) will be taking place between September 19 and November 8 as confirmed by the governing council chairman, Brijesh Patel. It will be played at all 3 venues in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
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All the franchises along with players and support staff can be expected to reach UAE by mid-August in order to get enough time to get match ready ahead of the IPL 2020.
