Oh Yes, The Umpires

Sachin Tendulkar was felicitated today at the Wankhede for playing 400 ODIs today. Right after that, Aleem Dar was felicitated for officiating in his 100^th ODI. As far as that match has progressed, Alem Dar has had a great day.

He has brought a little bit of the limelight onto the umpires today, and for positive reasons for a change. When he gave Yuvraj Singh not out on an appeal for both caught behind and LBW, more for the caught behind, he executed a great decision.

It was a tough decision. The ball pitched on middle and off, more off than middle and moved away just a tad. From the umpire’s point of view, there was a minuscule distance between the outside edge of the bat and the outside of the pad. The ball just clipped the top of the flap of the pad and went through to the ‘keeper.

Straight away, it didn’t look out. But it sounded so clearly out, which probably explains the Australians’ emphatic appeal. It was a bit of a surprise to the commentators as well when Aleem Dar turned down the appeal.

It looked so clearly out that the commentators said that if the decision was in fact correct, it would have to be an exceptional decision. And exceptional it was. Replays give away so much more than the real time telecast. Replays showed the ball missing the bat by a tiny margin, going on to clip the top of the flap of the pad, through to Gilchrist.

The reason it seemed convincingly out was the noise. As it had clipped the flap of the pad, the sound bares great resemblance to a nick off the outside edge. Furthermore, the bat and the point of impact on the pad were extremely close to each other. From the umpire’s point of view, the bat and pad were extremely close. This only made things tougher than they already were for Dar.

Regarding the LBW appeal, there was not a chance as the ball was missing off stump and was also very high.

It is understood that the Australians go up for everything, but they really believed this one was out – judging by the nature of the appeal and subsequently, the look on Ponting’s face after the decision was given. So often the Australians test the umpires with their appeals and Aleem Dar survives almost all the time.

It is not often that the umpires get the spotlight. Umpires do what is considered one of the toughest jobs in the world and certainly in the game for sheer love of the game. They deserve much more of the spotlight. If Dar does not get it, he decided, he would just give a spectacular decision which would help the cause. Congratulations on a rather successful 100^th ODI Umpire Aleem Dar.-BS