Richard Boock: Fans need to swallow some cold, hard facts about the real world

The time has come for our most disaffected cricket supporters to take a deep breath, pop a couple of Prozac pills, and register their interest at the nearest anger-management class.

As if their whining wasn't bad enough after the pre-Christmas series, the deeply disturbed have been plumbing new depths this week with their complaints over a couple of umpiring decisions, one of which remains debatable.

Poor Billy Bowden has copped a continual serve for his decision-making at Wellington, most notably his rejection of an appeal for caught behind off Matthew Hayden, and later for a ground-shaking lbw shout against the same batsman from Daniel Vettori.

Television replays showed he should have given the difficult leg-side caught behind decision, but the jury is still out on whether Vettori's sharply-breaking delivery would have hit or missed Hayden's leg-stump.

But whatever the verdict, the backlash against Bowden makes you wonder whether these folk have ever understood the principles of sportsmanship, the frailty of the human body and - not least - the cold, hard facts of competition.

Cold, Hard Fact No 1: To be winners, you need to be not only better than the opposition, but also the officiating.

The Australians must be chuckling in their Cornflakes this morning as they read the continued saga of New Zealand's alleged umpiring woes, and hear the stories about how Bowden cost the home team the game.

Cold, Hard Fact No 2: New Zealand blew it at Wellington. They were in a handsome winning position with three overs to go.

You get the feeling that the storm of criticism has been whipped up on the back of last week's suggestion that Australian players have some sort of psychological hold over international umpires, and because of that win more than their fair share of decisions.

The issue was raised by Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer and supported by former New Zealand test player Mark Richardson, causing a storm of media interest and some statistical analysis that showed Australia received the benefit of the doubt more often.

Well, they would, wouldn't they? They're the best team in the world.

Cold, Hard Fact No 3: Winning teams get the rub of the green. Just ask any soccer player who's been denied a penalty at Old Trafford.

For all that, by far the worst fallout from the opening one-dayer has been the attacks on Bowden, ranked as one of the world's best decision-makers by New Zealand, the ICC, and Australia, and possibly the best umpire this country has produced.

It might be that some don't like his posturing and poncing, the way he minces around the field, or his attention-grabbing antics with players and signalling alike.

But that's really neither here nor there when it comes to the business of accuracy, something that has underpinned Bowden's career since he gave up cricket as a player, and began a remarkable ascent through the umpiring ranks.

It seems only a short time ago that Doug Cowie was sawing off half the English team at Auckland, and Steve Dunne was causing bunfights on the other side of the world, mainly because they seemed to be losing an element of precision.

Since then, Bowden has taken New Zealand umpiring to the top of the world, and certainly doesn't deserve to be hammered on the basis of revelations from super-slow video replays, complete with sound-sensitive snick-o-meters, and graphical aids.

If people really want Bowden to be better than a machine, then they should give him one to use.

Better still, they could look up Cold, Hard Fact No 4: If the umpire is in doubt, he should give the batsman not out.