Behind the face of cricket umpires

I have to hand it over to our friend Jonathan for this excellent post on the much debated issues related to umpires in cricket. You can read about it here. Don't forget to also see part 1 too. Jonathan's take on the increasing emphasis of specific umpires on some incidents taking the brunt of all the scrutiny by the fans and the media is well put out and the case of the extent of the workload, umpires like Asad Rauf and Simon Taufel have to endure, is an eye opener, as hardly any have ...

Let there be light ICC

What a downer! For the first time in this series, the game became very competitive in the match between England and India, going down 'almost' to the wire and bad light stopped play. Yeah I know... It was like getting close to an ejaculation and then being asked to make your next move in Chess. Out came the officials with their rather favorite and complicated Duckworth & Lewis African 'mumbo jumbo'. You ever wondered why these officials like the D&L mumbo jumbo so much. One, ...

Inside Aleem Dar

A curious incident happened during the last test match which got me thinking rather weirdly. The incident in question was when Cameron White was caught red-handed tampering the ball. A small piece of leather was protruding and he apparently just plucked it out. The umpire Aleem Dar had caught him in the act, so did the cameras and had a prolonged conversation with Ricky Ponting. And then nothing happened... No action was taken... Let off lightly. Ball tampering of any nature is a serious c...