Breaking/Brief news
February 22, 2009
Steve Bucknor to retire from international umpiring
Steve Bucknor, who has umpired the most internationals (305) and as on date, the only one to have umpired 100+ tests, will be retiring from international umpiring in March.
In an interview to the Jamaica Gleaner, he said that his last test would be the 3rd test between Australia & South Africa while his last ODI would involve England & West Indies.
Now it's a lot more easier to make sense of Ricky Ponting excusing himself from the IPL. Notice that he wrote in his column "I have made the decision I will not play in the Indian Premier League Twenty20 competition this year." He didn't write "I will not feature in the Indian Premier League". Hence, it is perhaps not too outlandish to believe that as part of his training to move into a parallel career in umpiring, as we exclusively revealed here last month, Ricky will be doing umpiring duties during this season's IPL.
Steve Bucknor had been a reasonably ok umpire for a few years (ignoring his reluctance to seek the help of the TV umpire on India's tour of South Africa in 1992/3), despite his tendency to play havoc with TV broadcasters & producers by ensuring there was a minute's delay between the appeal and his decision. Nowadays though, so much money has been invested that we don't even get to hear the appeal, because we've got switched to an ad break!
But in the last 4-5 years, Bucknor's umpiring had deteriorated significantly. I never thought he was biased. But I was convinced he was incompetent. Instances posted on this blog - 2004 Aus v Ind, 2005 Eng v RSA, 2005 Pak v Ind, 2007 World Cup final & (very obviously!) 2008 Ind v Aus at Sydney.
The ICC has a real problem on its hands - a paucity of good umpires, cramped scheduling and a reluctance to use technology appropriately. Oddly enough, Bucknor hasn't ever umpired a T20 international!
Labels: bucknor, retire, umpires, west indies
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competence may also have been an issue. i felt he was definitely biased as well.
anyways, its good for cricket that he wont be around anymore. but its scary to think of that man from tasmania too ;)
By 
Ganesh (23 Feb 2009, 10:30:00 pm)
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