Irfan Pathan lashes out at Steve Bucknor for umpiring blunders in 2008 Sydney Test match

Irfan Pathan has criticised the controversial umpire Steve Bucknor after he had accepted that he had committed a few blunders in the 2008 Sydney Test match between India and Australia. In that series, Australia were led by Ricky Ponting while Anil Kumble was India's then Test skipper. 

Recalling the infamous 2008 Sydney Test match, Steve Bucknor revealed that two of his mistakes might have cost India the contest that they should have rightfully won. India had already lost the previous Test match and the loss at SCG was indeed a turning point as the Anil Kumble-led side went on to lose the series 2-1 despite registering a famous win at Perth in the following Test. The fourth and final match at the Adelaide Oval ended in a stalemate. After that Test match, the West Indian umpire was removed from the on-field umpires' list which meant that he could not officiate in any match for the remainder of that series.

'No matter how much...': Irfan Pathan

“No matter how much you accept your mistakes, what’s done is done, we lost the Test match. I remember, I played my first Test in Australia that was in Adelaide, my debut game (in December 2003)and we won that Test after 21 years in Australia and losing a Test match, just because of umpiring errors? Not going to make any difference, no matter what umpires say now" said Pathan while interacting on the Star Sports show 'Cricket Connected'.

“As a cricketer, we’re used to getting bad decisions, sometimes in our bowling, sometimes in our batting. And we get frustrated by that and then we forget about it. But this Sydney Test match, it was not just one mistake. There were about seven mistakes that cost us the game. There were mistakes where Andrew Symonds was playing, and he got out nearly, I remember, three times, and the umpire didn’t give him out",  the veteran all-rounder added.

“He was the Man of the Match, we lost by 122 runs. If only one decision against Andrew Symonds would have been corrected, we would have won that game easily,” the cricketer-turned-commentator/analyst added.

The controversial Sydney Test match

It so happened that star off-spinner Harbhajan Singh and all-rounder Andrew Symonds were involved in a heated exchange during that contest and when Bhajji had used a cuss word in Hindi, the Australians misunderstood him and thought that he had racially abused Symonds by calling him a 'Monkey'. Therefore, this Test match is also famous for the 'Monkeygate' incident.

Apart from the 'Monkeygate' scandal, the Test match was also known for some horrendous umpiring where all the decisions had gone against India and in favor of the hosts which eventually cost the Anil Kumble-led side the match.  Nonetheless, a spirited Indian team settled scores when they beat Ponting & Co. in the following Test match at Perth. 

READ: Steve Bucknor Recalls Two Of His Umpiring Blunders In The Infamous 2008 Sydney Test

(Image Courtesy: AP)