Vantage point




Thursday, January 10, 2008

Sigh!

I got back from India yesterday. The best thing about being back in the US was that instead of being bombarded by jingoistic and stupid outpourings from the India media about the Sydney test and the whole bhajji-bucknor-benson episode, I was bombarded with inane analysis about the Iowa and New Hampshire primaries from the American media.

Is there anything worse than the jingoistic and illogical Indian media outlets going on and on about the Sydnet test? Yes! Worse are the supposedly logical and rational columnists and bloggers holding a contrary view for the sake of holding a contrary view. Take for instance Hawkeye's post. He makes the mistake of addressing the lowest common denominator in the Indian media, and ends up making a post filled with factual mistakes (FYI, the ponting-kumble agreement does not extend to umpires), a poor understanding of image anlysis.... and even trigonometry (his whole beef with the video replays evidence about Ponting's dishonest catch claim), and even worse, dubious understanding of logic.

To make matters worse, he approvingly links to an article by Suresh Menon filled with as many factual mistakes (e.g. - Dalmiya got the result of a test match overturned in South Africa!! Really? And did pigs fly during the presentation ceremony?).

The mental distress caused to me by reading this contrarian but equally stupid blog posts and columns proves that no good can come out of Bucknor being an umpire.