We’re sad to say that
whenever stumps are finally drawn on the last day of the Fifth Test at The Oval
– short of one final miracle – England will
again hold The Ashes.

Sadder to say in that
event the best team will have won, but also assisted by the two
incomprehensible episodes of our opening batsmen going off for bad light on Saturday, which cost us valuable time we
could not afford; and then earlier today by umpires who turned the fourth day
into another bad light farce.

Despite play being
halted mid-afternoon with Shane Warne bowling at the time and Ricky Ponting
about to introduce Michael Clarke to also bowl spin from the other end, the
umpires still pulled the plug by offering England to go off for bad light,
which of course they accepted. Mayhem
immediately broke out among the cricketing fraternity, including former umpiring
great Harold “Dicky” Bird admitting he was dead against such action when safety
was not an issue.

Bird’s argument and
long experience suggested the laws regarding bad light were still
founded in the principle of danger to the batsmen, despite amendments
over
the years, and that
while facing only spin – there was no danger other than the batsmen
losing
their wicket.

Even Geoff Boycott
commentating on SBS felt the decision was totally contrary to the best
interests of cricket and certainly unfair on the Aussies. He also supported the principle that bad
light is deployed to protect batsmen from danger, not from the risk of losing their
wicket in poor light.

The umpires defended
their decision on the grounds that conditions were unfair to the batsmen. On
that basis they might as well start ruling on batsmen being regularly hit by
bowlers on unfriendly wickets as also “unfair” – as has happened in this series
with no such concerns. With the world
watching surely they also had a bigger responsibility to allow much greater
leeway with only slow bowling operating.

The controversial
ruling means Australia now finds itself needing to make the most of a
maximum
of 98 overs on the final day, made far more problematic when we
squandered the chance of a sizeable first innings lead by losing our
last seven wickets for just 44 runs to be all out for 367 – still six runs in arrears.
That we must now bowl England out a second
time both quickly and cheaply with the current lead of 40 and nine
wickets to take before we can chase the required target, is surely expecting
one
fairytale finish too many.

When you consider what
this remarkable series has done for cricket and the enormous interest in
wanting to see this Test decided not by weather or the umpires, the fact that 134
overs have been lost to rain or bad light thus far; and this is the latest ever
calendar finish to an Ashes Test in England, surely an optional sixth day
should have been held in reserve for just such a possibility?

You can read more on
the umpires’ defence of their action and Rod Marsh also supporting them at
BBC Sport.