India lost the NatWest series to England 4-3 yesterday. They were outplayed and the better team won.

Yet how important are umpiring decisions in the final outcome of a cricket match? Aleem Dar, the Pakistani umpire gave two dubious decisions in a row to break the back of the Indian batting. First it was the skipper, Rahul Dravid, followed by Sachin Tendulkar.

Tendulkar has had wretched luck with umpiring all through this tour of England. Pietersen was declared out in the Lord’s Test but came back when the umpire changed his mind. He was on his way back to the pavilion when his team mates indicated the catch was not fairly taken.

Should batsmen wait till the giant screen shows the TV replay before walking back? Were Rahul and Sachin too gentlemanly to ” walk” before they had to? When TV replays are used by the third umpire for lbw decisions why not for close calls on catches too?

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