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A Tragedy of Errors

Roshan Paul

After their first ever loss to Sri Lanka in the first test, South Africa desperately need to win the second test; and not just for cricketing reasons. Despite a couple of one-day wins against an awful Pakistan team, the ghost of Hansiegate still shadows the team. And it shows. A test win, therefore, is as vital as the proverbial apple, in order to exorcise the demons that are haunting this team.

The first day's play of the second test did not provide much hope. If Murphy had witnessed the proceedings at Kandy, he would have chuckled with glee for almost everything that could have gone wrong did.

The day began with an appalling display of professionalism by the groundsmen. Huge holes on the field delayed the start of the game and the groundsmen eventually had to be ordered to stop loitering and get off the pitch so that play could begin.

Meanwhile, Shaun Pollock called wrong yet again and Sanath Jayasuriya asked him to bat. Not an auspicious start for the Proteas.

Things then went from disappointing to, simultaneously, pathetic and amusing. The scoreboard on the far side of the ground made a total hash of the spellings of members of the South African team.

Some of them looked like this: Bouchar for Mark Boucher, Callinan for Daryll Cullinan, McGenci for Neil McKenzie and Boji for Nicky Boje. Perhaps the most hard done was poor old Jonty Rhodes for he was massacred into J. Rouds.

Even though a team list was provided for the scorers, no changes were made and the names stayed misspelled for the rest of the day.

All of this, the Springboks could have been borne with equanimity, if not for the most tragic part of the day: the umpiring of debutant local umpire Gamini Silva. His performance would have made a South African victory out of the question if not for Klusener's innings providing a ray of hope in the darkness.

To put it mildly, Silva had a disastrous debut. To be blunt, he was downright incompetent, especially in his adjudication of leg-before decisions.

Off the third ball of the day, Gary Kirsten was palpably lbw to Vaas. Not out. Two balls later came the day's shocker. Kirsten was beaten by a bouncing delivery that took the top of his pad and went through to the wicket keeper. A Sri Lankan appeal for a catch was upheld, much to Kirsten's disbelief.

On his way back, Kirsten inquired as to how he was out. "Caught behind at first", said Silva. Later, he changed his mind to lbw; this to a delivery that would have bounced way over the stumps.

Later in the day, Jacques Kallis and Nicky Boje both made the mistake of playing back to a ball of low bounce. Not so much a technical mistake as an unwise one against such an umpire. Both got thick inside edges but were given out anyway. Kallis was struck outside the line as well.

South Africa were in a hole and while Lance Klusener was busily digging them out of it with a 43-run last wicket partnership with Nantie Hayward, the number eleven was bowled off a Muralitharan no-ball.

Things didn't get any better when the Lankans came out to bat. Shaun Pollock believed he should have had Jayasuriya twice: once lbw and once caught behind. He shouted himself hoarse appealing. TV replays showed he was probably right.

Silva didn't think so.

In the South African second innings, its not hard to guess which end the bowlers are going to be queuing up, is it?

Just as interesting was the way the commentators, especially Ranjit Fernando and Tony Greig, looked at what happened; each one's viewpoint tilted towards their own nation. The unabashedly partisan Fernando, who in my opinion is a bumbling nincompoop, defended the umpires. He argued that the decisions were fairly close and the umpire doesn't have the benefit of the camera. He does have the benefit of his own ears, doesn't he? Can't he distinguish the sound of wood hitting leather? Apparently not.

Tony Greig put the situation in perspective when he said that, although the umpires had to rely on their own judgement, the law clearly states that any doubt must go towards the batsman. As several of the decisions were clearly touch-and-go, they should have gone towards the batsmen.

Some did; but mostly when Sri Lanka was batting!