One of the most seasoned umpires the game of cricket witnessed was Steve Bucknor, who was part of several coveted bilateral and multilateral series.
Needless to say, the West Indies umpire was involved in some of the most controversial decisions in his life.
None more significant than the couple of howlers against Sachin Tendulkar. Indian cricket team’s boat was heavily dependent on the prized wicket of ‘Master Blaster’.
Usually, umpires receive a lot of flak for their wrong judgements. It is one of the most challenging jobs as the world remembers for the wrong decisions made and not the good ones.
However, the criticism received becomes ten-fold when the wrong decisions are given against batting maestro Sachin.
In a recent interaction, Bucknor disclosed the two wrong decisions for Sachin Tendulkar, which has stayed with him thus far.
“Tendulkar was given out on two different occasions when those were mistakes. I do not think any umpire would want to do the wrong thing. It lives with him, and his future could be jeopardised,” Bucknor recalled during Mason and Guests radio programme in Barbados.
The first one came at Brisbane in 2003 when Tendulkar left a ball from Jason Gillespie which struck him on his pads. Hawk-Eye showed the ball comfortably missing the top of stumps. But Tendulkar was adjudged leg before.
“To err is human…Once in Australia, I gave him out leg before wicket, and the ball was going over the top. Another time, in India, it was caught behind. The ball deviated after passing the bat, but there was no touch. But the match was at Eden Gardens and when you are at the Eden and India is batting, you hear nothing. Because 100,000 spectators are making noise, those were the mistakes, and I was unhappy. I am saying a human is going to make mistakes and accepting mistakes are part of life,” he added.
Bucknor was also part of the infamous Sydney Test in 2008, where he made some visibly glaring errors, calling for bias amongst the Indian fans.
