WATCH: Steve Bucknor’s horrendous lbw call leaves Sachin Tendulkar shocked
Former West Indies umpire Steve Bucknor doesn’t enjoy the best of reputation among cricket fans because of some of his controversial decisions in the pre-DRS era.
Before technology allowed teams to contest the umpire’s on-field call, Bucknor gave multiple calls during his long career as an official that are still debated at length. He was one of the umpires involved in many of the poor decisions that went against India during the 2008 Sydney Test match against Australia.
But the mishap at SCG was not the first time that Bucknor had faltered badly in a match where India were taking part and in particular, the legendary Sachin Tendulkar, who was the receiving end of many such on-field calls from Bucknor through his career.
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Yet, the worst of the lot that the ‘Master Blaster’ endured came during the 2003-04 Australian summer.
Sachin Tendulkar left at despair over Steve Bucknor’s horror call.
When Steve Bucknor’s poor called shocked the great Sachin Tendulkar
The incident concerned is from the 2003 Brisbane Test where Sachin Tendulkar had just arrived at the crease but had to shortly make a long walk back to the pavillion without any fault of his because of Steve Bucknor’s glaring error.
The contentious dismissal is from the Indian first-innings at the Gabba. Trailing Australia’s 323 all out, the visitors found themselves 2/62 when Tendulkar stepped out to the playing arena. He had only faced two balls in his innings but then a shocking dismissal from Bucknor left the great man at huge despair.
Facing upto Aussie speedster Jason Gillespie for the final ball of the 23rd over, Tendulkar was given out LBW shouldering arms by Bucknor. But it was evident to everyone who saw the incident that the ball was clearly bouncing too high on what was a typically high-bouncy surface at Gabba.
Not only was the ball bouncing too high, the way Sachin Tendulkar shaped up, there was a chance that it also brushed his frontpad just outside the line of the off-stump. But since the batter wasn’t offering a stroke, the impact didn’t matter. What mattered was whether the ball was hitting the stumps or not?
The replays confirmed that the delivery that struck the top of Tendulkar’s front pad was sailing well over the stumps on the projected path.
Sachin Tendulkar, who had obviously left the ball on length, anticipated the ball to be going over. By the looks of it, the legend thought there is no chance that Bucknor would give it and wore a confident look on his face as he turned towards the umpire.
But only a moment later, that look of assurance changed into one of disappointment and shock. However, the great gentleman didn’t utter a word or show too much emotions, and simply walked away feeling dejected from inside.