Umps Having 'A Shocker'

The International Cricket Council's noble attempts to improve the quality of umpiring have again run up against the insoluble problem of human error in the first Test at Georgetown, in the form of Asoka De Silva.

Onlookers at the Bourda ground have given the former Sri Lankan Test leg-spinner the new first name of "a shocker" after a horror match featuring no fewer than eight lamentable lbw decisions which will further rock confidence in the ICC's elite umpires' panel.

De Silva has turned down four appeals when the batsmen patently looked out, while on another four occasions, the 47 year-old has been virtually the only person at the ground who believed the batsman should go.

De Silva's first contentious decision came in the dismissal of West Indian captain Brian Lara on the opening morning, to an Andy Bichel delivery which may have been missing off stump.

He followed by granting Bichel Shivnarine Chanderpaul's wicket to a ball which pitched outside leg stump, meaning that under the laws of cricket, it should not have been given out.

Merv Dillon was then given out to Stuart MacGill, to a leg-break which pitched outside off stump and would in all probability have missed it, a decision which led to plastic bottles being hurled onto the field by disgruntled spectators.

On day two, Australia's Brad Hogg survived against off-spinner Marlon Samuels when replays strongly suggested he should have been given out.

West Indian Wavell Hinds was reprieved on the second ball of the third day when struck on the pads by a Brett Lee delivery which looked like it would have hit the middle stump. De Silva then gave left-hander Hinds out when he was extravagantly forward to a MacGill leg-break headed wide of leg stump.

Steve Waugh was then rightly aggrieved after tea when Daren Ganga survived an appeal on 65, and when Lara was given not out on 101 to a ball destined for middle stump.

The controversy has not been all De Silva's, with the usually dependable South African Rudi Koertzen ruling West Indian Devon Smith lbw on Thursday when a thick edge cannoned into his pads.

The ICC's eight-member elite Test panel was instituted last April, with each umpire signed to a two year contract.

De Silva, who will also officiate in the second Test from Saturday, is not alone in drawing disparagement, with Zimbabwean Russel Tiffin in hot water throughout the last two Ashes Tests this season.

Following lingering criticisms, the panel was recently increased to 11 members. Spectators at the first Test will be hoping the increased quantity also leads to increased quality.