Poor umpiring at Lord' s mar Aussie- England Test

That England won the Second Test against Australia and at the home of cricket - Lord' s - and for the first time in 75 years would have been a cause for celebration and warmed the cockles of their supporters.

But that historic victory was marred and lost some of its glitz because of the very poor umpiring. In an Ashes series between these two great cricketing nations nothing must and cannot be left to chance.

The umpiring especially has to be top class and any poor umpiring could go to take away the game as a contest and could end with a bad taste in the mouth and take away the credit from, and the hard work put in, especially by the winning team.

And that is exactly what happened in the Second Test won by England to take a one - nil lead in the Five Test series with the First Test ending a nail biter in Cardiff. In this instance, we are taking the umpires to task, especially Rudi Koetzen of South Africa.

At the outset we would like to state and accept that umpiring is no easy job. While many will be the critics, not many will want to do this thankless job and we hope that Koetzen will take the criticism in the spirit it is made.

Koetzen as umpire must have an eye on everything that goes on in the field. From a 'no-ball' to all else. When Katich, the Australian opener was caught in slips it was a 'no-ball' and had he watched the bowler's foot Katich would not have been out.

Then the most glaring and the blunder he made that had no excuse was the manner in which he ruled out the other Australian opener Philip Hughes. It was apparent that catch that England skipper Andrew Strauss took at slip had clearly touched the ground.

Australian skipper Ricky Ponting who was the non-striker who also noticed the catch being taken off the ground asked Hughes to stay put. But Koetzen in consultation with his fellow umpire Billy Doctrove of the West Indies ruled the batsman out.

What Koetzen should have done was to have gone to the third umpire for a verdict. Why he did not do that is inexplicable. That was the second Australian wicket unnecessarily lost in their bid to protect pride of not having lost a Test at Lord' s for 75 years and if possible looking for a victory.

But in Hughes' case, the culprit was South African born Strauss. Winning at all cost is not cricket and for that matter in any sport. When there was a bit of confusion, Strauss would have shown the sport in him by telling the umpire that he was not sure if the ball had touched the ground before claiming the catch.

Obviously Strauss would have badly needed a victory, so that he could boast that under his captaincy England won a Test at Lord's. But that is poor thinking.

We would recommend video clips of the bump catches taken by his countryman Jonty Rhodes and Sri Lanka's Sanath Jayasuriya. Rhodes and Jayasuriya are not only on record but also on film of having taken the catch and signalling to the umpire that the catch was not clean. That's the example Strauss should have followed.

These incidents would also have gone to make the Australians feel that they were robbed in their attempt of victory or staving off defeat. The Aussie media who could be unforgiving rubbished the umpiring, especially taking Koetzen for a bite.

But for these incidents the game was played in the best of spirits, although Ponting had a few verbals with an umpire and Kevin Pietersen, all in the heat of the moment.

The remaining Three Tests to be contested should see no quarter asked or given with both, England and Australia straining every nerve and sinew with one team to regain the Ashes and the other to retain it.

The folly of keeping with Dilshan

It was utterly foolish to ask Tillekeratne Dilshan to don wicket keeping gloves against Pakistan in the Three Test series. Accepted that Dilshan did a good job. But that is beside the point.

Dilshan's rightful place was at point or at cover. Those are fielding positions that he excels in taking some brilliant catches and stopping tons of runs. But when Prasanna Jayawardena, the regular wicketkeeper suffered an injury, the selectors opted for Dilshan as wicketkeeper. Now that was poor thinking.

Now wicketkeeping is no easy job. One has to be at it to excel. And it is a position that requires constant practice. A few minutes of practice does not make a complete wicketkeeper.

But to Dilshan's favour it must be said that he answered the call of the selectors and performed magnificently, until he suffered a fracture to his index finger when taking the catch nicked by Pakistan opener Fawd Alam.

Now when that unfortunate injury struck, Dilshan should have said that it was not easy keeping with the injury and skipper Kumar Sangakkara should have taken the job.

But Dilshan continued to keep, thereby aggravating the injury and what has finally happened is that Sri Lanka will not have his services in the First three 50 over internationals against Pakistan. That is sad..

Player of the tournament at the ICC World Cup Twenty20 in England, his pet game is instant cricket and his presence will be badly missed. Together with the dashing Sanath Jayasuriya, he formed a feared opening pair.

Now his heroics with the bat and excellent fielding will be missed by the thousands of cricket fans who would throng the Rangiri Dambulla Stadium.

This is something akin to being penny wise, but pound foolish.

Papara, papara bands missing

On the first day of the Third and final Test between Sri Lanka and Pakistan, the big band sounds by the papara, papara bands were heard, which no doubt would have been irritating to the players and especially to the umpires.

But saner counsel seems to have prevailed and the bands were missing after the first day's play.

Bands could have been allowed and told to make all the noise in between overs or at lunch and tea breaks or after the game, but not when the action was on.