Apart from the 'MonkeyGate' scandal involving Harbhajan Singh and Andrew Symonds, the 2008 Sydney Test between India and Australia is famous for a number of umpiring errors against the visitors.
12 years after that Test match, which Australia won dramatically in the final session on Day 5, former West Indies umpire Steve Bucknor admitted that his two mistakes might have robbed India of a historic win in Sydney.
The 74-year-old Bucknor was officiating in that Test match alongside England’s Mark Benson.
“I made two mistakes in the Sydney Test in 2008,” Bucknor told Midday.
“Mistake one, which happened when India were doing well, allowed an Australian batsman to get a hundred. Mistake two, on Day Five, might have cost India the game. But still, they are two mistakes over five days. Was I the first umpire to make two mistakes in a Test? Still, those two mistakes seem to have haunted me,” he added.
The West Indian umpire was referring to his decision on Day 1 of the Test match that gave Symonds a life.
India pacer Ishant Sharma found the inside edge of Symonds’ bat when the latter was batting on 30 but Bucknor adjudged it not out. Riding on his luck, the Aussie all-rounder smashed 160 as the hosts posted 463 in first innings.
In reply, the tourists claimed a 69-run lead on the back of Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman’s fabulous centuries.
Australia set India 333-run target on Day 5 with only 72 overs of play remaining. After losing the top-order cheaply, Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly came to India’s rescue with a good partnership but the former was given caught out wrongly on 38, which Bucknor referred as his ‘second mistake’.
“You need to know why mistakes are made. You don’t want to make similar mistakes again. I am not giving excuses but there are times when the wind is blowing down the pitch and the sound travels with the wind. The commentators hear the nick from the stump mic but the umpires may not be sure. These are things spectators won’t know,” Bucknor remarked.
In the second innings, Ganguly was also given out in a controversial manner. The umpires were not sure whether Michael Clarke’s catch off Ganguly was clean or not but Ricky Ponting raised his finger, signalling it's out and the umpire went with the then Australia skipper’s word.
India eventually got bowled out for 201 in the second essay and lost the Sydney Test match by 122 runs.
