British media comes down heavily on umpiring decisions

London, January 20: The British media today came down heavily on Indian umpire S K Sharma for the "poor" and "ridiculous" decision against Marcus Trescothick which arguably denied a thrilling victory to the visitors in the first of the six-match one-day international series.

"The umpiring of S K Sharma was ridiculous. He called two no balls when neither Darren Gough nor Jeremy Snape had over-stepped, twice signalled a six without waiting for the television umpire to tell him it was four and then capped it all with his lbw decision against Trescothick to a ball pitching well outside leg," the Sunday Telegraph wrote.

"It was probably not a good sign when Sharma walked out at the start for his 11th International and waved his hat to the crowd. April can not come too soon when neutral umpires will stand at one end for these games," the report said.

Another daily Sunday Times said India won the match but the glory belonged to England opener Trescothick.

"(Nasser) Hussain had more to complain about than poor practice facilities last night after his England were arguably denied a thrilling victory in the first one-day international in front of 100,000 baying Indian fans at Eden Gardens, by poor decisions from local umpires," it said.

"Trescothick, batting brilliantly for 121, looked set to guide them past a mountainous target of 282 when he was given out leg before to a ball that pitched several inches outside leg stump by umpire S K Sharma."

The report said, earlier Nick Knight had been given out in similar fashion by umpire K Hariharan to the second ball of the innings from Javagal Srinath. That also appeared to pitch outside leg.

Skipper Nasser Hussain, writing in the 'Captain's Diary' in Sunday Telegraph, admitted "we're obviously frustrated by certain things. It wasn't my team that was the loser, the game lost certain things and that's for ICC and other people to look at, not the England captain".

However, he said, the team would not dwell on the issue. "Decisions go against you but it's not the end of the world and we just pick ourselves up - if we don't we will cause ourselves problems."

Hussain described Trescothick's innings of 121 as probably the best one-day hundred he had seen for England. "He (Trescothick) becomes more like Graham Gooch every day".

In its story headlined "poor lbw decision for opener sparks familiar collapse of England wickets", the 'Observer' wrote "Trescothick's 121 from 109 balls,

England's only innings of substance, came to grief 58 short of victory, courtesy of a wretched lbw decision by S K Sharma to a ball from Javagal Srinath that pitched well outside leg stump."

Sunday Mirror commented a "controversial decision cost England the chance of a famous victory at Eden Gardens".

"England looked well set when Marcus Trescothick, who had climbed off his sickbed to play, was going strong after reaching a marvellous century. But umpire S K Sharma adjudged that Trescothick was leg-before to Javagal Srinath, even though he was half-way down the pitch," it said.