Keep the incidents coming, it helps shape the future…

Every series must have its share of incidents, some pleasant and more often unpleasant. Otherwise, it becomes boring with not much trivia to...

Every series must have its share of incidents, some pleasant and more often unpleasant. Otherwise, it becomes boring with not much trivia to remember later. When it is an India-Pakistan series, there has to be a fair share of material that will later attain folklore status…despite this being a ‘friendship’ series.

The first target will be the man in white who braves the elements through the five days of the Test match but still comes under fire from the players, the media and us former cricketers. For Pakistan’04, the fall guy is 57-year-old Steve Bucknor, till some time ago the best umpire in the world. But of late, he seems to have developed a taste for Indians and has been chasing the team around the world.

Mr Bucknor has played a somewhat significant role in dictating India’s fortunes in recent times, so much so that Indian captain Saurav Ganguly reportedly marked him ‘zero’ in the captain’s report in Australia recently. The former soccer referee takes pride in saying that he has a right to err because he happens to be human. He is singularly unrepentant about his mistakes, especially against India.

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On to another topic doing the rounds these days: It is a well-known fact that Pakistan bowlers were the originators of ball tampering and reverse swing. Former leg-spinning great Abdul Qadir has reopened the issue by speaking openly about the issue. Naturally, no authority can take such allegations without reacting, and the PCB did the only thing they could: Ban him.

It is also unfortunate that Rashid Latif had to make the stupid allegations of match-fixing knowing fully well that in these times of zillions of TV cameras and ICC sleuths, not much can happen without the knowledge of the authorities.

With the win at Lahore, Javed Miandad — the chatterbox — must have heaved a sigh of relief. The series is all square now. Otherwise, the PCB would have moved to a higher gear on the discussion about looking for a fresh mind to do the handling.