SYDNEY: The ICC decision to remove Steve Bucknor from the rest of the India-Australia Test series has left the media Down Under sharply divided on whether the game's governing body did the right thing or just bowed to the world's richest cricket board's pressure.
'Sydney Morning Herald', a widely read broadsheet here, felt the decision has set free a 'genie' which will haunt the ICC for a long time to come.
"A major concern for cricket's leaders is that the decision to oust Bucknor lets a genie out of the bottle. Which country will follow next with a refusal to play under a particular umpire?"
"Yesterday's action is both a buckling to power and a pragmatic decision to try to allow the tour to proceed," their columnist Tony Stephens wrote.
"Many people will complain that it's just not cricket. In a way, though, it is," he added.
'The Daily Telegraph', however, said the ICC did the right thing to calm a potentially explosive situation, which threatened cricketing ties between India and Australia.
"The International Cricket Council, so often criticized for its handling of major crises, did well to draw a deep breath and make a tough call," wrote Robert Craddock.
"It was sad but it simply had to happen. The sacking of Steve Bucknor as umpire for the third Test in Perth has saved the series.
"No one likes to see an umpire sacked but nor should they be untouchable. Everyone else in the sporting world is constantly under the threat of being dropped if they underachieve."
"Umpires should be no different," Craddock opined.
"Making the call to drop Bucknor in the middle of a series may seem cringingly bad timing but sometimes desperate situations call for unconventional methods," he added.
"In dropping Bucknor the ICC has acted swiftly and decisively and deserves credit for that."
'The Australian', however, continued to spit venom over India's "pressure tactics" in getting Bucknor removed for the Test series.
The paper went a step further than the rest and incorporated a video section to show that "the Indian Test side in general are not saints on the field when it comes to controversial decisions".
But the 'Sydney Morning Herald' held a moderate view on the raging controversy about players' behaviour.
"Cricket's bosses have brokered a peace that won't please everyone," wrote Stephens.
"This boiling controversy, probably the biggest row in Australian cricket since the Bodyline series in the 1930s, is about the power and the passion. Australia and India are the two countries most passionate about their cricket. It is the national game in both lands."
"India is the second most populous nation in the world and provides more than half the money generated for the international game.
"Yesterday the International Cricket Council buckled before the demands of the Indian team and their administrators, and dropped the umpire Steve Bucknor from the next Test, due to be played in Perth. The move is designed to take the heat out of the row," he added.
