Sport 01-12-2000 Horrified Hussain Felled By Umpire`s Error who: England cricket team what: Trail Pakistan by 216 runs at end of second day of Second Test where: Pakistan when: Yesterday snippet: England trailed Pakistan by 216 runs at close of play on the second day of the Second Test yesterday, but have closed the gap this morning on the third day, retiring for lunch on 171-3. "England are on the back foot in this Test," says Derek Pringle in The Independent, "a position brought about by tantalising spin and an umpiring gaffe unworthy even of the village green". Umpire Steve Bucknor gave England`s captain Nasser Hussain out lbw at the Iqbal Stadium in Faisalabad yesterday, although video evidence shows Saqlain Mushtaq`s ball had clearly deflected off Hussain`s bat. Horrified Hussain "froze when he saw the finger go up", says Michael Henderson in The Telegraph. He "has had to accept some shocking decisions this year, when he has not gone past 25 in a Test innings, and now he had been punished by the worst of the lot." Colin Bateman in Express Sport Live argues that Bucknor is "an honourable man but like the rest of us capable of mistakes". The real culprit yesterday, he says, is the international cricket law which "makes mugs of umpires and a mockery of cricket" by failing to embrace the television technology which could "be used to its full advantage to cut errors to a minimum". [... more]

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