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One of the most seasoned umpires the game of cricket witnessed was Jamaican, Steve Bucknor. He was part of several coveted bilateral and multilateral series. However, the West Indies umpire was involved in some of the most controversial decisions and that has taken most of the sheen out of his illustrious career.
Generally, umpires receive a lot of flak for their wrong judgements. It is one of the most challenging jobs as the world remembers the umpires for the wrong decisions made and not the good ones. However, the criticism received becomes manifold when the wrong decisions are given against batting legend Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar.
The former India captain was given out wrongly on many occasions by Bucknor.
One of those occasions happened at Brisbane in 2003. Sachin left a ball from Jason Gillespie which struck him on his pads. Hawk-Eye showed the ball comfortably missing the top of stumps. But Sachin was adjudged leg before by Bucknor.
Another time in India, Bucknor gave caught behind to Sachin by mistake. The ball deviated after passing the bat, but there was no touch. But the match was at Eden Gardens and Bucknor was mistaken with 100,000 spectators making noise there.
In another such incident in the final of the Coca Cola Cup between India and Australia in Sharjah in 1999, the Men in Blue were cruising to the title. Tendulkar had already scored a hundred and was smacking everything from the middle of the bat. However, umpire Bucknor came up with a howler again as he adjudged Tendulkar out Leg Before Wicket (LBW) on a delivery which didn’t just pitch outside the leg stump, but was going further down the leg side. It was missing the leg stump by a good few inches.
Bucknor was also part of the infamous Sydney Test in 2008, where he made some visibly glaring errors, calling for bias amongst the Indian fans.
However, after his retirement, Bucknor, who had a history of gaffes with India, admitted that he had indeed given Sachin out wrongly at least on two occasions -- at Gabba in 2003 and at Eden Gardens in 2005.
“Tendulkar was given out on two different occasions when those were mistakes. I do not think any umpire would want to do a wrong thing. It lives with him and his future could be jeopardized,” Bucknor admitted in a radio programme.
Tendulkar was adjudged LBW against a Gillespie delivery during India’s tour of Australia in 2003-04. But Bucknor later agreed that the ball was going over the wickets.
Bucknor also admitted that Tendulkar had not edged a Razzaq delivery in 2005 during India vs Pakistan Test match.
“To err is human. Once in Australia, I gave Sachin out leg before wicket and the ball was going over the top. Another time, in India it was caught behind. The ball deviated after passing the bat but there was no touch. But the match was at Eden Gardens and when you are there and India is batting, you hear nothing because 100,000 spectators are making huge noise. Those were the mistakes and I was unhappy about it. I am saying a human is going to make mistakes and accepting mistakes is part of life,” Bucknor added.
