By IANS
Sydney : International cricket umpiring’s fragile credibility received yet another blow Sunday night when South African Rudi Koertzen gave retiring Australian wicket-keeper and batsman Adam Gilchrist out.
Koertzen’s controversial decision didn’t help as Australia’s fate was sealed at 159, one of the lowest one-day score by the World Cup winning team.
Gilchrist was given out leg before wicket to the third ball of the game “when the left-hander hit the ball onto his pads. That India appealed so vigorously for such a blatant inside edge was remarkable, given the pointed claim of its Test captain Anil Kumble last month that Australia had failed to play within the spirit of the game during the dramatic second Test in Sydney,” says Malcolm Conn in The Australian.
Koertzen had made another shocking decision against the Sri Lankans in November last year, depriving Kumar Sangakkara from making a double century in Hobart, Tasmania. He was given out caught when “the ball clearly lobbed from shoulder and helmet.”
Out of the 10 umpires on the International Cricket Council’s elite panel, The Australian says, “only eight of them remain acceptable to India following the unprincipled dumping of Steve Bucknor last month and Darrell Hair two years ago.”
The wrong decisions made during the Sydney Test in January had led to the replacement of Steve Bucknor and Darrell Hair was banned from umpiring major matches after, in 2006, he awarded England the Test when Pakistan refused to return to the field post tea in protest at a ball tampering charge which was later dismissed.