And the winner is .the umpire!

By the time you read this, the Sydney Test between India and Australia would perhaps be heading towards a tantalizing finish where anything could be possible. However, the Test has already made history, thanks to the rank bad umpiring which could well make the difference between winning and losing.

On day one, India had Australia on the mat, with six of its frontline batsmen out for 130, but the umpires quickly got into the act, and bailed Australia out with their bizarre decisions.

irst, Australia captain Ricky Ponting was the beneficiary as a couple of edges were ruled not out by Benson, before he finally ruled him out leg before off a huge inside edge.

Veteran Steve Bucknor - who has cultivated an unsavoury reputation of being 'anti-India' thanks to the innumerous times he has dubiously ruled Sachin Tendulkar out - was no better as time and again he ruled in the favour of the Australian batsmen.

Youngster Ishant Sharma had got a thick audible outside edge of the dangerous Andrew Symonds on 30 but Bucknor to the shock of many turned the appeal down. Later the third umpire also made his presence felt when Symonds (48) was given not out off a stumping appeal even though his feet had not touched the ground.

The blunders continued into the second day when Symonds again benefitted when Bucknor refused to use the third umpire off a closing stumping appeal. Close look at the television replays showed that Symonds, who was on 148 then, was once again short of his crease.

As if this were not enough, India's batsmen too suffered when Wasim Jaffer was bowled by Brett Lee off a fast delivery, but replays showed that he had overstepped the bowling crease.

Not surprisingly, the commentariat went ballistic over the quality of the umpiring. Former India captain and commentator Ravi Shastri slammed Bucknor saying that the West Indian "was past his sell-by date."

Australian legend Steve Waugh remarked that "four obvious errors in one day...is poor concentration" and called for the neutral umpire system to be scrapped to allow the homegrown world's best official Simon Taufel to stand in Australian Tests.

Peter Roebuck was equally caustic when he wrote: "…the sweet-natured Jamaican is past his prime. Indeed, he was expected to retire after the World Cup. Those responsible for allowing him to linger were also partly responsible for a decision that changed the course of the day and possibly the match and series."

While one can argue quite legitimately that umpires are human and prone to error, the issue is not likely to die down, what with the Indian Cricket Board viewing it very seriously. The Cricket Board was quick to direct the Indian team management to lodge a protest with ICC Match Referee Mike Procter against the atrocious umpiring decisions.

The cricketing world will watch with more than a keen interest the outcome of the ICC's reply and how it will impact the world of umpiring. Whatever it rules, one thing is sure as far as the Indian fans are concerned: Even if Ponting's men defeat the Indians, the Sydney Test would be won by the umpires, and not by the Australian team.