'Slow death' Bucknor promptly put out of his misery

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If Michael Holding was 'whispering death' then Bucknor, 61, was 'slow death' for the time he took in raising the dreaded finger, sometimes seeming almost to have dropped off to sleep while pondering the merits of an lbw decision.

Yet invariably he got it right. There is no question, however, that Bucknor had one of his worst games at Sydney, where almost all of his errors favoured Australia.

If this is to be the end for Bucknor, and immediate retirement cannot be ruled out, then he should be remembered for being the West Indies' best umpire and the most experienced at Test level the world has known rather than a figure who, by the nature of the job, has made some high profile mistakes.

Former England allrounder Derek Pringle never tires of saying that Bucknor cost him the chance of being England's match-winner in the 1992 World Cup Final when he turned down what looked like a plumb lbw shout against Javed Miandad.

As recently as last year, standing in his fifth World Cup Final, he was implicated in the bungled finish, which saw Australia beat Sri Lanka in the dark.

But Bucknor deserved better than to be ruthlessly tossed aside by the ICC at the whim of India's powerbrokers.