OF TAUFEL, HOWARD AND AN APOLOGY
The second cricket Test match between India and England played at Trent Bridge was a important as it went on to underline the success that the Indian cricket team has been enjoying on foreign trips in the recent past. However, the Trent Bridge test had another noteworthy feature – Australian umpire Simon Taufel’s apology for handing out Sachin Tendulkar a faulty decision leaving the batsman nine short of what would have been his 38th Test hundred. Taufel, who has won the ICC Best Umpire of the Year award for three successive years, was forthright and honest in admitting that he had made a mistake in giving Sachin out and ‘denying fans a chance’ of watching the great batsman in action. This whole episode went on to prove that even the best can err. And Simon Taufel only enhanced his standing as an umpire by owning up to his mistake. On the same day that Simon Taufel expressed disappointment with his decision, we had another Australian, the continent’s Prime Minister John Howard, ruling ...