Sachin Tendulkar questions Australian players' conduct in Sydney 2007-08 Test

Sachin Tendulkar

Taking a dig at the Australian players for their unsportsmanlike behaviour in the Sydney Test – the second of the 4-match Test series in 2007-2008, which India lost by 122 runs after being at the receiving end of some questionable umpiring decisions, Sachin Tendulkar has said that he had no doubts in his mind that – had it not been for those errors – the visitors would have drawn the Test.

In his recently released autobiography, Tendulkar writes, “Mind you, there is little doubt in my mind that we would have drawn had it not been for what seemed to us to be mistakes by the umpires and some rather unsportsmanlike conduct by a few of the Australian players.”

Questions Adam Gilchrist

Chasing 333 runs to win the Test, India lost stand-in opener Rahul Dravid caught behind off the bowling of Andrew Symonds to be 4 down for 115; retired umpire Steve Bucknor raised his finger in response to the Australian players’ appeal despite the ball clearly not making any contact with the bat.

Tendulkar writes, “Rahul Dravid was given out caught behind off Symonds for 38 by umpire Bucknor when his bat seemed to be a fair distance away from the ball. The wicket-keeper Adam Gilchrist was standing up to the stumps at the time and was in the best position to see if the ball had touched Rahul’s bat.”

“Yet he, who prided himself on walking off if he nicked the ball, appealed for the caught-behind and to our disbelief we saw the umpire raise the finger. It was a shocking decision. Some of us actually wondered if Rahul had been given out lbw.”

Michael Clarke and Ricky Ponting appealed for a grassed catch

The 41-year-old also raises doubts over Michael Clarke and Ricky Ponting’s plea against Sourav Ganguly for what he thought was a grassed catch.

He further writes, “Michael Clarke and Ricky Ponting decided to appeal for what we thought was a grassed catch at slip (which resulted in the dismissal of Sourav Ganguly). Finally, umpire Bucknor gave Dhoni out leg-before when to us the ball would clearly have missed the stumps.

“It seemed that every decision that could go against us had done so.”

Here is the video of the decisions that went against the Indian team in that match. Watch it and have your say in the poll below: