Umpires go scot free

Now that the dust has settled, hopefully the genuine cricket followers can make their voices heard. The hullabaloo that followed the Smith incident at the Bangalore Test completely derailed the main issue.

Ironically for days together the cricket experts, commentators and writers et al went to town discussing the Decision Review System. To begin with, no one asked for the DRS and the procedure was not in operation.

Some critics decided that it was a case of Smith versus Kohli. While others thought it was an issue between BCCI and ICC. Cricket connoisseurs around the country were quite aghast to find that the primary consideration was blown off in the whirlwind of one-upmanship.

Thanks to repeated television coverage everyone saw that the Indians appealed for a leg before wicket decision against Smith and the umpire ruled in India’s favour. Smith looked towards his non-striking partner for his view. The non-striker gestured to him to look towards the Australian dressing room to confirm the decision.

 Accordingly Smith did look towards the Australian dressing room as both Kohli and umpire Llong rushed towards him to warn him that it was against the spirit of the game.

It goes without saying that what Smith did was against all norms and codes of cricket. Thankfully Smith apologized as did his batting partner for their misdemeanor.

BCCI sent a note to ICC as a charge as is the procedure. But within a few days BCCI withdrew the charge as well!

Here the point to note is that the umpires should have laid a serious charge against Smith for what he did. And on receiving the charge the match referee would have acted on it and penalized the Australian captain.

Whether Smith has apologized or not is not an issue at all. Why the umpires refrained from raising a charge is the primary and the only issue. A conscientious match referee would have asked the umpires to put up a charge and acted on it.

If some people have seen the shadow of racism in the outcome I personally cannot blame them because over the years the ‘white’ players have got away with murder. If an Indian cricketer had done something similar hell would have been created.

 No ‘white’ critic has found any serious fault in Smith’s behavior. This typically racist approach is an obvious off-shoot from a group that includes Darren Lehman, the Aussie coach. Lehman, if one cares to remember, was charged for making a serious racist allegation in the past.

Neither the umpires nor the match referee have been hauled up for avoiding their respective responsibilities. This is a matter of serious concern. Is this also a case of racism to save the failures of ‘white’ match officials?