KEY POINTS:
So, a straight sets win to India.
First, they got spinner Harbhajan Singh's three-test ban for calling Australian Andrew Symonds a monkey deferred while they mount an appeal - to be heard almost certainly after the third and fourth tests of the series are completed.
Then they get
their way with senior West Indian umpire Steve Bucknor replaced by New Zealand's Billy Bowden for the Perth test starting next Wednesday. Bucknor is expected to retire from the elite panel in a couple of months.
India may not know of Bowden's tendency to hug Australian players, otherwise they might have been on the blower to International Cricket Council chief executive Malcolm Speed to find another option to replace Bucknor.
Speed can use all the diplomatic language he likes - "it is an extraordinary set of circumstances and we want to take some of the tension out of the situation" and so on - but the ICC clearly caved in to the Board of Control for Cricket in India, the game's biggest financial player.
It was a tough spot to be in and the ICC have argued they have taken the pragmatic approach, to keep the tour going whatever it takes. It took Bucknor's head on a platter and holding off Harbhajan's appeal to let things cool.
But if a sport has a governing body, with a set of rules to administer, then it should follow its mandate, or change it. They could have engaged in a Mexican standoff, called India's bluff and watched to see where the chips fell. As India generate about 70 per cent of the game's income, that could have had far-reaching consequences.
The ICC have got themselves in a pickle on a couple of counts. India will tour New Zealand next season for three tests and five ODIs. What say they lose the first test, aren't happy with the work of an umpire and call for his replacement, threatening to pack their bags if they don't get their way?
You've done it before, they can argue to the ICC, so do it again. Part of the issue is the opposition. The Australians have shown themselves again to be an unruly, ugly, unlovable, rule-bending mob in the current spat. The tension was racheted up by the circumstances of the finish in Sydney.
It's unlikely India would feel sufficiently moved to similar steps in, say, Seddon Park or McLean Park and against demonstrably weaker opposition. But the ICC has set a precedent.
And secondly, having thrust a one-way ticket to Kingston into Bucknor's hands, the next bloke due to get his Don't Come Monday is surely match referee Mike Procter.
The South African, who has been in charge for 45 tests, has serious form for botch-ups. Most notably, he presided over the Pakistan forfeit against England at The Oval in 2006, when a more sensitive hand might have prevented the bust-up.
In 2003, he let off Glenn McGrath and Ramnaresh Sarwan after the pair almost came to blows in Antigua.
In Sydney before this test began, Procter gave a speech to a breakfast audience, in which admitted he'd erred in failing to find Indian batsman Yuvraj Singh guilty of dissent after being caught behind during the first test.
Procter gave a bizarre, convoluted explanation of what constituted dissent to players who don't have English as a first language, claiming Yuvraj took longer than normal to leave the crease "due to the fact he was shocked at the decision. At no stage did he show displeasure or dissent at the umpire's decision."
If those are the criteria, there's a stack of batsmen down the years who can feel hard done by at being punished for being "shocked" at being given out.
Speed was so annoyed by Procter's decision not to penalise Yuvraj that he told the former great all-rounder he was wrong and tried to appeal against the decision.
Now the ICC have called in the sheriff - chief match referee Ranjan Madugalle - to soothe stormy waters with rival captains Ricky Ponting and Anil Kumble. If that's not undermining their own man, what is? Procter's time, like Bucknor's, is up.
One other point: Australian spinner Brad Hogg is up in front of Procter for abusing Kumble and Indian wicketkeeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni before the Perth test.
Given the cultural differences and sensitivities involved, does "monkey" equate to Hogg's alleged "bastard" call? And if Hogg is let off, what then for the rest of this tour?
