First Taufel,now Howell!!

The umpiring horrors of the Engish summer continues.Simon Taufel kickstarted this blunder campaign and Ian Howell has followed nicely in his footsteps,proving that he too is as demented as Taufel was when it comes to judgement of LBW's.Perhaps they should be sent back to training class.

Sourav Ganguly.The guy who launched his career in the hallowed turfs of England thought he had a chance to finish his last tour of England nicely but the umpiring gods had other plans.Two tests and two bad decisions including the fact that he was well set in both cases would make for a good tragedy.The rueful smile that came when the Howell gave him out,inspite of the ball having nicked the inside edge,conveyed it all:the disappointment,the frustration and the anger. Why the hell did God give Ian Howell a pair of eyes that would put a blind man to shame?When you can't pick up an inside edge when giving LBW decisions,sorry mate,you are not fit enough to be a umpire.This probably will be the last time we will see Dada swing his bat in England and the finish expected from his bat was not intended to be.

Now we will come to the curious case of "Dinesh Karthik And The Un-Nicked Ball".Ian Howell,poor guy,what a handicap it must be,not being able to see clearly compounding his hearing problems.Damn!I thought umpires were intelligent but here we see a clear anamoly of that.The decisions were third rate,to say the least.Poor Karthik.Yet another century gone begging.He must have been so hopeful when he reached 90.We should give those deaf idiots headphones capable of delivering 2000W PMPO and see perhaps if that helps.The Snicko clearly registerd nothing and yet our dear Howell heard something.Perhaps it was already poor eardrums that popped,unable to take in the deafening silence when the ball passed the bat, making him believe that it was a nick that he had heard.

All said and done,you cannot overrule the umpires decision so it stays.But the abysmal standard of umpiring ought to make the ICC sit up and take notice of the pathetic state the umpires in the Elite panel are.Ironic,isn't it.The ICC pick the best and the picked turn out to be the worst(I don't blame the entire umpire community.But when respected people like Taufel start making awful decisions,that,guys,is the limit).

P.S:Does the ICC have a quota for the handicapped in umpire selection like they do in academics?Coz Ian Howell definitely qualifies for the "Blind and Deaf" category.