Dear Mr. Billy Bowden,
One has always had the greatest regard for you and accorded the respect due to you on account of your being one of the finest umpires in the world. Your antics have been imitated nay even become part and parcel of many a cricket fans bag of tricks, but, your actions and bull headedness during the India-England group A World Cup 2011 encounter at Bengaluru's M.Chinnaswamy stadium did certainly end up raising more than an eyebrow or two and also did raise questions about your abilities and judgement as an umpire.
You were certainly guilty of committing atleast two if not more bloopers during the game in question, firstly you did not rule Andrew Strauss out caught behind off the bowling of Munaf Patel when he literally hit the cover of the ball with his individual score on 21 at the time, one must grant you the fact that Messrs Dhoni and company certainly did not bring the roof of the stadium down with vociferous appeals and theatrical antics and the only visible reaction from both Dhoni and Munaf Patel was a muted cry of anguish at what might have been.
Dhoni and Munaf might have failed to hear the snick or nick as it is called in different cricketing nations, but you had recourse to the stump microphone and must have certainly heard the same on it, the deviation of the ball from it's original trajectory after passing the bat should also have been a dead give away and prompted you to lift your crooked finger in affirmation of the snick, you might well argue that the Indian players did not vociferously appeal for the same, but one does certainly recall an appeal being made by Virender Sehwag who was stationed at the mid wicket position at the time and the cries of anguish of both the keeper and bowler.
So much for your first blooper,your second blooper of not ruling Ian Bell out leg before the wicket to a Yuvraj Singh delivery that pitched in line with the off stump and straightened to hit the middle of the middle stump with the batsman's individual score reading 25 for the flimsy reason that the point of impact was beyond 2.5 metres from the stumps and that the ICC rules clearly specify the fact that any decision made beyond a distance of 2.5 metres from the stumps lie purely in the domain of the on field umpires.
Billy you should have first and foremost taken cognisance of the fact thay you were officiating a game on an Indian pitch and not one on an Australian or South African one where the ball would have most comfortably have bounced well over the height of the stumps more often than not. Secondly one wonders why you did not take into account the significant fact that the ball pitched in line with the stumps and there was little or no deviation from its original patch after pitching.
While sticking to the letter of the law is indeed an admirable quality, any eminent jurist worth his/her salt will tell you that it is the interpretation of the spirit of the law that marks the difference between a run of the mill and eminent jurist and the same holds good for umpires as well, you should have been the first one to take cognisance of the fact that there is no scope whatsoever for personale prejudices and idiosyncracies in this era of instant replays,mats,hawkeyes,snicko megters and so and so forth where every error or mistake made by the umpires is magnified to the extent that it becomes the hot debating subject for the next week or two.
This is not to say that your umpiring bloopers ended up costing the Indian team the match, but the mind boggles to what if, England would have certainly struggled to chase down the mammoth Indian total if both or even one of the above mentioned two decisions would have gone in favour of the Indians and ended up with two point in their kitty rather than the one that swelled their kitty at the end of the match.
One can only hope and pray that you will henceforth base your decisions on the prevalent playing conditions and due diligence rather than an archaic law that was drafted by so called men of infinite wisdom without failing to take different playing conditions in different parts of the world into consideration and last but not the least, BILLY DO STOP BEING SILLY.
SUNDEEP CHOPRA.
One has always had the greatest regard for you and accorded the respect due to you on account of your being one of the finest umpires in the world. Your antics have been imitated nay even become part and parcel of many a cricket fans bag of tricks, but, your actions and bull headedness during the India-England group A World Cup 2011 encounter at Bengaluru's M.Chinnaswamy stadium did certainly end up raising more than an eyebrow or two and also did raise questions about your abilities and judgement as an umpire.
You were certainly guilty of committing atleast two if not more bloopers during the game in question, firstly you did not rule Andrew Strauss out caught behind off the bowling of Munaf Patel when he literally hit the cover of the ball with his individual score on 21 at the time, one must grant you the fact that Messrs Dhoni and company certainly did not bring the roof of the stadium down with vociferous appeals and theatrical antics and the only visible reaction from both Dhoni and Munaf Patel was a muted cry of anguish at what might have been.
Dhoni and Munaf might have failed to hear the snick or nick as it is called in different cricketing nations, but you had recourse to the stump microphone and must have certainly heard the same on it, the deviation of the ball from it's original trajectory after passing the bat should also have been a dead give away and prompted you to lift your crooked finger in affirmation of the snick, you might well argue that the Indian players did not vociferously appeal for the same, but one does certainly recall an appeal being made by Virender Sehwag who was stationed at the mid wicket position at the time and the cries of anguish of both the keeper and bowler.
So much for your first blooper,your second blooper of not ruling Ian Bell out leg before the wicket to a Yuvraj Singh delivery that pitched in line with the off stump and straightened to hit the middle of the middle stump with the batsman's individual score reading 25 for the flimsy reason that the point of impact was beyond 2.5 metres from the stumps and that the ICC rules clearly specify the fact that any decision made beyond a distance of 2.5 metres from the stumps lie purely in the domain of the on field umpires.
Billy you should have first and foremost taken cognisance of the fact thay you were officiating a game on an Indian pitch and not one on an Australian or South African one where the ball would have most comfortably have bounced well over the height of the stumps more often than not. Secondly one wonders why you did not take into account the significant fact that the ball pitched in line with the stumps and there was little or no deviation from its original patch after pitching.
While sticking to the letter of the law is indeed an admirable quality, any eminent jurist worth his/her salt will tell you that it is the interpretation of the spirit of the law that marks the difference between a run of the mill and eminent jurist and the same holds good for umpires as well, you should have been the first one to take cognisance of the fact that there is no scope whatsoever for personale prejudices and idiosyncracies in this era of instant replays,mats,hawkeyes,snicko megters and so and so forth where every error or mistake made by the umpires is magnified to the extent that it becomes the hot debating subject for the next week or two.
This is not to say that your umpiring bloopers ended up costing the Indian team the match, but the mind boggles to what if, England would have certainly struggled to chase down the mammoth Indian total if both or even one of the above mentioned two decisions would have gone in favour of the Indians and ended up with two point in their kitty rather than the one that swelled their kitty at the end of the match.
One can only hope and pray that you will henceforth base your decisions on the prevalent playing conditions and due diligence rather than an archaic law that was drafted by so called men of infinite wisdom without failing to take different playing conditions in different parts of the world into consideration and last but not the least, BILLY DO STOP BEING SILLY.
SUNDEEP CHOPRA.
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