(In The Papers Today: Cricket writers take the ICC to task for turning a blind eye to the poor performance of its 'elite' umpiring panel...)

Veteran West Indies cricket writer Tony Cozier has broken his silence on the quality of umpiring in the just-concluded Test series against Australia, arguing that the Caribbean side was "undermined" by "incompetent umpiring."

"Four times, they were victims of mistaken decisions by two members of the International Cricket Council (ICC) elite panel, a description that has come to have an increasingly hollow ring to it," Cozier wrote in a column syndicated around the region.
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So Cozier read what everybody else in the media saying (and including this board) and now he says his piece....okay is ole he ole !!!

Cozier has always specialised in regurgitating what is already in the public domain and turning it into HIS article....

i guess timing is everything....

Now allyuh understand the power of sustained pressure. Keep writing those letters. Send to the press, calll sports programmes. Dis is warrrrrrrrrrr!

Only 4 times???? :roll:

In reply to carib Clearly he speaks only of the decisions in the West Indies second innings. And all this crap people saying about how it will not be cricket and it will take away the excitement of the game. Is cheating cricket? Has the NFL or college football suffered because of technology? Those who defend the status quo do so only because it maintains their empires!! :evil:

In reply to dcbreds You are smack on target dc, that Sarwan decision was particularly egregious. Steve Wonder could have seen the 3 wicket plainly as sarwan stood 6 inches outside his leg stumps.

That piece in the T&T Express was a match report that covers some of the bad umpiring. I want to see an opinion piece by Cozier stating the problem of unfair umpiring, who benefits and the relevant remedies and solutions. Cozier is falling very, very short as a Caribbean sports journalist.!!!!!!!!!!

In reply to carib During the 2nd test, as soon as Gayle fell victim, I predicted that this trend would continue for remainder of all WI innings. Its too late to catch-up on the count..4, 8, or 12. Beginning from 1st-test I reckon its a total of 10 bloody stupid , flawed & blundering decisions by "Clowns" in the middle ( with and without crooked fingures) !!! I will not criticise Tony.C for speaking out ( better Late than Never ) But it appears that he reads this MB regularly, and therefore, would Thank him to go a step further by making the following proposals public: - As long as available technology is deliberately shunned or avoided, Umpires in the middle will be ridiculed, embarrassed and discredited at the end of each dissmisal/Innings. Modern technology is a MUST for atleast the following decisions: Run Outs, Stumpings, Nicks, All Bat-Pad Catches, doubtful catches like 1st-bounce & off-the-grass, It would not be sufficient to totally depend on "Hawk-eye" for LBs, but decisions must be made only after determining where the Ball pitched and contact with PAD. - If a Batsman HAS nicked, and does NOT "walk"... If replays prove that he HAS nicked or gloved, he must not only be given-Out, BUT ALSO FINED 50% OF MATCH-FEE + 1-MATCH BAN ! This would purify & cleanse such CHEATS like MATT HAYDEN, etc.. - If a Batsman has NOT nicked, but GIVEN-OUT on instinct & hastiness, Batsman should remain and DEMAND Video & "Snicko-meter" REPLAY. Umpire MUST reverse his erranous-decision immidiately. This would do justice to all those genuine "Walkers" like Lara & Gilchrist. - In order to accomodate all these replays........... KNOCK-OFF 10-Overs from the days play ( minimum 80-overs ) Rather than have 90-overs of flawed & stupid umpiring decisions, Cricket-fans world over would welcome 80-Overs of FAIR-PLAY & QUALITY DECISIONS !!! - PONTING Talking SHIT !!! RUBBISH !!! Says elite-panel of 7 is not sufficient. With or Without an elite-panel of 7 OR 70 , the fact remains SAME: YOU DO NOT ACHIEVE QUALITY BY INCREASING QUANTITY !!! 7 or 70 are the SAME ERROR-PRONE HUMANS STANDING IN THE MIDDLE !!! CREATED BY GOD TO ERR !!! Typical Kangaroo-court statement from Ponting. I'm not surprised. Short message to "SHEIKH" ( haven't seen him around for a while ): Teams like Australia can remain on Top , Series, after Series.... as long as they have Umpires who back-up their Bowling and grant "Clemency" to their Batsmen !!! KAMALDEEN

where have u been all these days?

In reply to kamaldeen Man you seem very passionate about this. I like your idea about the fine though. Make them pay if they do not honour the spirit of the game.

dcbreds ... they did it to Ridley ... don't?

In reply to natty_forever Did not remember that. Actually, I would feel more comfortable if the umpires used their middle fingers when sending WI batsmen. At least we would really know how they feel.

In reply to dcbreds Not Passionate. Been waking-up at around 5.00 am to catch 1st ball live. I Can accept defeat. 3-0 Was always on the cards. But UNFAIR-PLAY bothers me a lot. What constitutes the word "ELITE" ??? Special ? extraordinary ?, outstanding ? Superior to Others ? These clowns in the middle haven't even done their "home-work" ! They can't distinguish between genuine Wallkers and Non-Walkers ! They succumb to intimidating appeals from the big guns like Lee, Mcgrath or Warnie. I've witnessed these scenarios in past series too. Take it from me, things gonna get nasty & ugly in the middle sooner than later, and eventually, they'll settle for technology ! Kamaldeen.

Australians are very seldom the victims of bad umpiring decisions, they seem to benifit more from these dicisions. So one can understand why Ponting is making excuses and wants to see an increase in the number of umpires rather than an increase in the use of the available technology.

In reply to prasad Hi Prasad, Had a short lay-off . But been right here for the OZ tour. Despite the score-line, still pleased with the performance: No more 51 or 84 all outs. 2 tests were stretched to the 5th-day. Bravo & Ramdin getting better. Lara looking good for another 2-years. (Next target - 35 centuries ) Big Dissappointments: - Elite Panel of Umpires !!! - Ordinary performance of D.Powell (Speed declining ?, sloppy feilding, cannot use new-ball ? - Shiv's leadership & Batting. - Forcing Dwayne Smith into Tests. Rgds, Kamaldeen.

The argument against use of technology is that it severely limits the usefulness of the umpire, as these decisions are referred to a third umpire. But this does not necessarily need to be the case. I say arm the umpires out in the middle with technology to review the close calls before they give a decision. Then the umpire still does his normal role but aided by technology for those close calls. Wireless mobile monitors should be made available to the umpire who can now take time to review these close calls and make the decision. This way technology is not replacing the umpire in the middle but aiding these same umpires to make better decisions. This will provide them with the same technology available to the TV commentators and eliminate showing up umpires making eyeball judgement calls realtime that are close which are always high probability to be wrong. Taking the time to review and make decisions would also minimize the affect of the fierce appealing as well.

In reply to Wasco I hope you don't think that technology alone is going to end the destructive bias of decisions against our team. You should ponder on that "accidental" push of a wrong button by the third umpire that almost saw Andrew Symonds walking back to the crease after a clear run out. You should also consider how the Aussies orchestrated appealing which could have got them encores at the Sydney Opera House did not earn them a team sanction (Cozier , to his credit reminded us that Inzie, the Pakistan captain was banned for one match for his team's excessive appealing) or even an individual sanction ( apparently Warney was found not guilty). Until our WICB officials and journalists get off their collective arses and start presenting the statitistics that show the obvious bias in decisions against us when we are playing any one of England, Australia or South Africa, we will continue to get the wrong end of the stick, even with technology. Nobody wants to bring race, religion or culture into this but lets face the facts. One Aussie tennis player by the name of Leyton Hewitt considered it an affront that his match against a black tennis player should be adjudicated by another black. He was convinced, to the point of making an outbust, that the black umpire was giving him some unfair line calls because he was biased in favour of the black player - i.e. the umpire was cheating. Yet every year, early in a test series, we get our obligatory minimum of two bad decisions against our batsmen ( I have not attempted to count the ones against the bowlers) from the likes of Kuertzen, Hair and Harper (I am still holding out hope for Taufel, and consider Bowden so incompetent that his bias against us may just as readily be a consequence of fear of upsetting the establishment as any desire to maintain the status quo) and we are asked to accept that they are just honest mistakes. I would question whose culture, ours or either of white South Africa, colonialists England or whites-only/aboriginals exterminating Australia has shown a propensity to play dirty in their fight for superiority. What's worse is that these adverse decisions happen just as readily in our own backyard. Of the top test playing teams, only Pakistan can claim to suffer more adversely from umpires when they are up against us. Perhaps a reflection that the Islamic culture is looked upon even less favorably than ours. We must fight back at the highest level to expose this corruption and to demand true neutrality in our officiating.

In reply to kamaldeenexcellent annalysis...a lil harsh on powell but thats alright..it might give him a spark!! as to the rest ...spot on...

In reply to Logicwell said...and you forgot to add that it always goes against our best...anyone's ever counted how many times lara's been robbed v say a hayden, smith, ponting or vaughn??

In reply to windies Ponting talking shit & rubbish again............. First, he comes out with rubbish like needing to increase the quantity of "Elite-panel" in order to relieve pressure on existing 7 !!! Now , he goes on to say he's NOT in favour of using more technology , atleast not Yet !!! Well, Well, Well... He'll keep saying that as long as it takes : As long as he is NOT at the receiving end of these Blunders. I would give a million bucks to witness the following scenario: - Out of the 1st 4 innings he bats against SA, he should be UNFAIRLY GIVEN OUT 3 times by the same A.Darr. Billiy Boy & Rudi.K !!! - Atleast 1 of his top-order Hayden , Langer or Hussey, should be UNFAIRLY given-out every Oz innings. - Oz should end up losing the 1st 2 Tests, to go down 2 Nil. - Smith, Kallis, etc, having snicked the Ball, should NOT walk. - The fiery, intimidating appeals of Andre Nell melting the elite-panel. After all above, Would Mr.Ricky Ponting still make the same Statements he made now ??? We are talking about a man who got seriously "Concerned" about English Substitues on the field !!! Over to you guys.......... Kamaldeen.

I am quite as frustrated by the bad decisions against us, and am somewhat convinced of the conspiracy theory based on the obvious bad decisions. So much so that I stopped watching the first test after Lara's LBW to Lee and again in the third test after Sarwan's LBW again to Lee, having paid for the 3 test match series. I was so incensed by the poor/cheating decisions,call it what you may. The reason I say arm the umpires with technology,is that it will remove any doubt about cheating vs poor decisions vs pressured by vociferous appeals. You hear arguments for both sides today. No one disagrees that WI got bad calls because no one can argue with the technology ( slow motion replays, hawkeye, location of ball pitching relative to wicket,etc), except maybe Healy when he argued that hawkeye was wrong to show the ball missing the stump on Lara being hit on the pad by Symonds, but was instantly corrected by SA Tony Greig who said the ball pitched outside leg so that was not out. So if these umpires are armed with technology that people agree with and make the wrong decision, then there is no more argument on poor judgement vs cheating, it would be clear cheating. With a fast bowler bowling at 95mph, the umpire has to check for overstepping as the bowler is releasing the ball, looking to see where the ball pitched and then making an LBW or edged decision in the face of vociferous appealing. Armed with technology, he does not have to make a quick decision to the loud appealing, he can verify where the ball pitched using wicket to wicket lines vs eyeball judgement, use hawkeye to follow the swing and height again vs judgement. If he now calls it different to how everyone else judges it, then there is obviously cheating going on. This way the umpires also dont feel they are being replaced. They now have technology to make close decisions vs eyeball judgement.

In reply to kamaldeen Pointin and his Aussie team have greatly benefited from these erroneous decisions. Why will anyone expect him to ask for any change? Shane Warne and Brett Lee led the pack in softening the umpires with cocky unrelenting questioning and harrasing to the point where the umpires nervously gave the benefit of the doubt to the Aussies, whether they were batting or fielding. Of course the Aussies were never known as Sportsmen. Their voiceverous appealing for obvious bump-catches (as in the case of D. Powell and Ramdin), or catches to deliveries that were never played (as in Lara's dismissal), or numerous questionable LBW decisions. However, it must be noted that the Aussie team did not have too many umpiring complaints (ask Pointin in the first test where he went on to score a big century and change the momentum of the entire series when the youthful WI dubious confidence was whisked away; or Hayden)

In reply to Wasco Point well made and accepted!