Match referee had no sense of justice

The umpires and match referees have never had it so bad.

The recent Test series between Australia and India, had the match referees and umpires stretched to the limit.

First it was umpires Steve Bucknor and Mark Benson who were called into question, because inexplicably some ordinary umpiring and then match referee Michael Procter had the ignominy of coming off second best, when his judgement against off spinner Harbhajan Singh was reversed and the bowler smiling back to play his trade, with only a fine to pay.

Bucknor was packed off home. Now Bucknor is one of the best umpires in the circuit and that he was made to suffer for the mistakes he made was unacceptable.

After all Bucknor is also human, and don’t humans make mistakes? His sending off was too harsh.

Procter would be regretting for the trouble he took to originally slap a Three Test ban on Harbhajan.

Then when the dust seemed to be settling, comes the unjust fine imposed on Rohit Sharma in the Commonwealth Bank triangular series match between India and Sri Lanka which was washed off at the Gabba on Tuesday.

Sharma was fined 10 per cent of his match fee for staying at the wicket after he was ruled out by umpire Rudi Koetzen caught behind by Kumar Sangakkara off Muttiah Muralitharan.

Replays showed that Sharma had missed snicking the ball by a fair margin. Sharma who could not believe the decision, walked off in disgust looking at the replay on the big screen.

Watching the action replayed on the TV it was obvious that the batsman was not showing any dissent, but staying put at the wicket because he could not believe that he was given out.

The fine imposed on right handed batsman Sharma left a bad taste in the mouth. Doesn’t the match referee Jeff Crowe have any idea of justice?

Here was a batsman who had not touched the ball but was given out - caught behind.

Sharma naturally stayed at the crease. Perhaps the law states that’s a show of dissent, but surely it was justified. Obviously, the match referee had no sense of justice.

He and others who are called upon to make judgements should be informed by the International Cricket Council that in the highest Court in England - the Privy Council to which even Sri Lanka resorted to in the old days, judgements are based on justice and not on facts and the law as is done in the lower courts.