KEY POINTS:
The current controversy across the Tasman is not a case of Australian cricketer versus Indian cricketer but rather the Board of Cricket Control in India (BCCI) versus everything that has been happening to touring teams in Australia for the past decade.
Things have finally come to a head
because the tourists have an administration that has power and wants to flex some muscle. Cricketers have been at each other's throats for decades. Gamesmanship is one of the game's great traditions and inevitably boils over into tastelessness at times.
Cricketers are happy to accept that environment - but they are not happy to accept an environment they feel is unjust.
Australian cricketers have created an environment in Australia that is unjust. Don't blame them because they have created it by being excellent. Their play is exceptionally skilful and they win because of it.
But the nature of their play, unfortunately, places not only their opponents under extreme pressure but the umpiring as well, thus making winning in Australia a little too easy for the Australians.
Don't ask the players to change because it's unfair to expect them to do so. They reach the level they have through being super-competitive, driven and uncompromising and they simply will not back off. So to make a change, hit the thing that turns disappointment into anger - poor umpiring.
It's unfair to say umpiring has all of a sudden become poor. There have been good and bad decisions throughout the ages but now, with all the technology available to broadcasters, poor decisions become glaringly obvious errors.
It's there for fans to see but, more disturbingly, for the players too. A player no longer needs to argue that he thinks he got a rough one, he can prove he did.
Technology can be used to improve umpiring whether as a means to make decisions or not. If it is to be further integrated, then the ICC must find a way to incorporate it seamlessly and unobtrusively.
I don't like the challenge system because it only leaves an incorrect umpire red-faced so I say leave the decision of when to 'go upstairs' solely in the hands of the umpire.
If the human element of umpiring is to be preserved, then use the technology available to critique umpiring performance. There is a chance now to be quite objective when assessing an umpire's performance and then ideally be ruthless in the drive to rid international cricket of substandard performers or ensure remedial steps are taken.
The job therefore is for the ICC to ensure an adequate supply of quality umpires coming through the ranks.
Quality umpiring should not be influenced by aggressive Australian cricketers so perhaps the BCCI would like to be a little constructive rather than destructive in response to the current disappointment and donate some of their riches to the ICC for the development of umpiring.
