Steve Bucknor’s erroneous decisions cost Sachin Tendulkar his wicket

06/18/2020

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One of the most experienced umpires in the world, Steve Bucknor was constantly the name on all lips for many cricketing controversies around the world. One of the cricket’s darkest days was when Bucknor umpired in the Test matches that Sachin Tendulkar was part of in the early 2000s.

The now 74-year-old Steve Bucknor till date remains as one of the rarest umpires in the game - who has been part of both the cricketing world and the world of football. Infamously, he was part of the 2008 Test series against Australia, where till date, the decisions taken were terrible. Standing at 6 feet three inches, the umpire from the Caribbean first met Sachin Tendulkar in the 1998-99 series between India and Pakistan.

What surfaced that caused such tension, which in return took an ugly turn between the two nation’s relationship. The right-handed Sachin after knocking the ball to the deep was running towards the bowler’s end for a third. However, that is exactly when things opened up an ugly story - with Sachin narrowly missing out from a third run. Usually, when there is a run-out in the Test format, it is associated with the laziness of the batsmen and his inability to cross the strike.

A vociferous appeal from the left-arm seamer, Wasim Akram was enough to convince Bucknor to go upstairs to the third umpire. Visibly, the Indian top-order batsman was left disappointed as he walked the long walk back to the Indian dressing room. Soon after that, the entire stadium erupted, calling the Pakistani pacer a ‘cheat,’ and this was just in the very first experience between Steve Bucknor and Sachin Tendulkar. A packed house of 65,000+ gave the West Indian his first telling criticism during the encounter. That also incidentally started his strained relationship with the Indian team.

Bucknor strikes again in India's 2003 tour of Australia

In 2003, India’s series Down Under went very well till that very point - when ‘Slow Death,’ Bucknor’s hands went up, slowly yet steadily. At 62/2, India were already two down and their start was slow at the Gabba, where the bounce is more than any other pitches around the world. Any sane person, who has not been to Gabba would know that the bounce is more and if there is an LBW decision in play, it would be deemed not out more often than not.

But, not with the West Indian, who’s left finger slowly went up when the height was well beyond the sixth stump height. Sachin was left bemused after the decision, wherein he expected him to turn down the appeal from the veteran umpire. Walking back, the Indian top-order batsman’s reaction showed it all - displeasure, shock and confused. Jason Gillespie was left stunned as he ran towards his team, jumping in joy because he knew that it was not his delivery which caught Sachin plumb but Buckor’s decision which caught him stunned.

If his decision was a quick one, it would not have caught the batsman or the bowler by surprise but the fact that he was so slow to raise his hands made matters worse. Naturally, it did not stop there, as Bucknor was back again officiating India’s encounter against Pakistan at the same Eden Gardens, a year and a half later. In that game, he was once again amongst the mix with the fans recalling his incident with vociferous shouts and chants. Unperturbed by it, he was once again called for action, giving Sachin out despite there being a daylight gap between the bat and the ball. The tension between the two had already been building since well over five years at that point and it had to lead to something or the other. On top of that, it was the Caribbean umpire’s 100th Test, where he decided to give the Indian out.

While the Mumbaikar’s on the field calmness stayed intact for most parts of his career, off the field, he decided to rule himself out of appearing for Bucknor’s event - for his 100th Test celebration. And, after all of this, when the Master Blaster posted a video, ICC came up with a hilarious tweet, where there was the image of the umpire and Sachin, with Bucknor giving a no-ball of Sachin’s bowling when he picked up a wicket. Throughout his career, if there was one umpire who had such an effect on the Indian’s career, it had to be Bucknor, who’s career too stretched way beyond till 2007. And, despite making several great decisions in cricket, his decisions against the Mumbaikar would always go down in history as one of the ugliest spats on the cricketing pitch.