Re: Pakistan tour India next month
When people complain about Indian Umpiring in the 1980s, I am reminded of the "Tied" Madras Test between India and Australia in 1986.
Umpire Vikram Raju upheld Greg Matthews's appeal for LBW against Maninder Singh in the tense last moments to allow the Aussies to tie the Test. The LBW was far from plumb.
While I don't want to base my opinion on a single incident, I will summarize :
Several Indian Umpires of yester-years(pre-90s) were incompetent.
Several Pakistan Umpires of yester-years(pre-90s) were incompetent AND DOWNRIGHT BIASED.
**To quote Dilip Vengsarkar (former India player/captain):* *
*The umpiring in Pakistan was very bad. One of the local journalists told me during the 1982-83 trip that there are odds available on the number of lbws given during the series. *
We'd plead with the umpires and the standard reply was: " **Janab jahan say main dekh raha hoon , ball dandi per nahi lag rahi thi . *"*
*Our bowlers were frustrated. One of our bowlers even implored Javed Miandad and Imran Khan to urge the umpires to give some lbw decisions but they'd turn around and say: " Mian, yeh Pakistan hai ." And we'd quietly get on with our jobs. *
Even the local media didn't write anything to bring to light these misgivings. Such was the anguish that we vowed that on Pakistan's return tour to India, they will get the same kind of umpiring. But that never happened, our umpires were good.