Former Umpire Bucknor admits his mistake on giving Sachin out against Australia

In a recent interview on YouTube, former umpire Steve Bucknor admitted that the now infamous decision he took against Sachin Tendulkar  was a wrong decision and his mistake.

Steve Bucknor, 79 years old,  was a West Indies umpire  who retired from umpiring in 2009. He was one of the most respected umpires in world cricket for over two decades who stood in more than 120 Test matches and several Cricket World Cup finals.

But despite his long career, he is remembered in India mainly for his controversial decisions against Tendulkar.

 In the recent interview given by Bucknor, he admitted that it was his mistake on the decisions he took against Sachin Tendulkar. “Giving Sachin Tendulkar out leg before wicket, and it's a matter of knowing that it was a mistake, but until this day, every day, people talk about it,” Bucknor said in an interview with the West Indies Cricket Umpires' Association.

“Why did I give him out? Was he out and so on? But then in life, mistakes happen. I have accepted that it was a mistake, and life goes on,” he added.

During the 2003-04 Test between India and Australia at The Gabba, Tendulkar, at the peak of his career, was given out lbw to Jason Gillespie for a three-ball duck.

The Indian legend tried to leave the ball, but it came back and hit his pads. There was a loud appeal from Gillespie and wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist. Bucknor quickly raised his finger. In realtime and replay, it was  clearly seen that the ball is missing the stumps but Buckner saw it differently,   and raised his finger, which also shocked Tendulkar. 

The second decision Bucknor has admitted regret over happened at Eden Gardens in 2005 against Pakistan. Tendulkar was given out caught behind off Abdul Razzaq’s bowling just when he was nearing his 35th Test ton. T replays clearly showed there was a gap between bat and ball.

Even the appeal  by Pakistani players was not very confident, but Bucknor still raised his finger, leading to outrage from Indian fans.