Disclaimer: A complete personal opinion on the cricketing controversy. If you disagree with this, do so with respect. Otherwise you are from the winning side :P

I was literally screaming when Dravid was given out on the final day. I wasn't up until late just to see this!! It was a shocker!! Dravid was playing so well, filling my heart and I believe all his fans' too, with optimism that this bloke was still there, hanging on. It was just about time we (Indians, just in case you are wondering) were beginning to look to "draw" the game, whole and square. After that followed another shocking appeal from Ponting for Dhoni. Hmmm, Ponting was too busy appealing to notice that he had in fact grounded the ball in the process. Nope, it wasn't 3 seconds, neither did he appear to be in control. And he was livid!! Oh my!! And surprisingly, the commentators never concentrated, or properly discussed it. (By the way, I was watching a live Australian feed).

Ganguly should have persisted for some more time, but given the fact that we are still 'gentlemen', unlike them 'somethings', he walked on, dissatisfied. He waited for Ponting to give the decision? Oh sorry, Clarke?  Who the *uck was the umpire there? Or were they relying on the  "Gentleman's agreement" they agree to before the match? At this point in the match? Hmmm, I wonder. Obviously it was a mutual understanding anyway, one had to respect it. Just like the Australians did. Dhoni and Kumble did what they could do the best. But unfortunately couldn't last. Sigh.

After reading all the controversy, faithfully, waking up each day after the test, being slightly inspired by the "standing-up" of the rest of the team for Harbhajan, which soon translated, very fast, into a kind of mockery, I come to understand that the issue has started from the field and ended up on the board room. True, as many suggested, it could have been rested then and there. Or perhaps, as someone suggested, Ponting might have been a bit too eager to see off Harbhajan. Or may be he was really trying to show the "calm and restraint" that he and Symonds asked the Aussie crowd to maintain when the latter was jeered at in India, from India itself, even before Indian team landed on the shores of the Oz land. Ok, did you follow this by the way?

Anyway, now hat Bucknor has been replaced, I am sure the next appeal for an umpire change will be the Pakistanis followed by Sri Lankans and then the English (of course when playing the Australian team). I am not sure West Indies or South Africa would appeal, just now. And then what? Change umpires all the time?

India refused to played with Bucknor officiating. Bucknor meanwhile, didn't say anything (or was under the order to be so). With him not backing off, there was a stalemate. Of not only the series being threatened, but the ensuing monetary losses. Sigh. Cricket for a brief time was relegated to the background when the latter was being discussed.

I read, my memory being bad, someone suggesting that the pressure on umpires should be relieved to some extent. Player referrals?? But only two per match? But will this bring down the standard of umpiring? What if, like this test, there are more than two bad decisions? In the same day. Or do we have the technology COMPETENT enough to actually being helpful rather than just create a doubt? (All said and done, one still argues Clarke's catch was 'suspect'. SUSPECT my foot, from miles away, on a 15" laptop screen and a miserly live telecast at 320x240 resolution, I could clearly see that!! Ok it's another if my sigh was a suspect).

Now, everything seems to be settled. Bucknor out, Harbhajan in, Sydney out, Canberra in. Will we play any better? Would we actually see our famed batting line-up actually play that way? At Perth??

In the end, I simply wish we replied to the Aussies in the field rather than anywhere else. I just wish.

P.S. Didn't umpires (actually umpire, that too Indian) actually give Kumble his 10-for in Delhi?