British media intensifies controversy on removing Bucknor, Blames India
MIL/Agencies, Jan 9, 2008.
London: January 9, 2008 – Today’s London dispatch says that the controversy over the removal of Steve Bucknor from the series has taken a serious turn.
The British media here today has taken the ICC left and right and questioned on the sacking of Steve Bucknor from the Perth Test? The British Media has alleged that ICC bowed to the rich Indian Cricket Board and removed Bucknor from the next Test.
"Cricket's rulers caved in to pressure and intimidation from the sport's biggest powerhouse by reaching a shabby compromise that ensures India's tour of Australia will go on whatever the consequences to their authority," screamed a column in Daily Mail.
"It is simply that India, who generate more money from cricket than all the other Test nations combined, are indisputably running the world game, not the governing body," Paul Newman wrote.
"How can the ICC decide to sack Bucknor from this series, even though he had a shocker, when their own Standard Playing Conditions dictate that 'neither team will have the right of objecting to an umpiring appointment'? He asked.
"Bucknor deserved better than to be ruthlessly tossed aside by the ICC at the whim of India's powerbrokers."
The newspaper also carried another column which said the ICC has dumped a black umpire to appease a team accused of harbouring a "racist".
"A shudder must have run through every white coat, every match official in every sport, as Bucknor became the scapegoat," Paul Hayward wrote.
Comments by Dr. Raj Baldev
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