Once an opener, now an umpire

It’s been an eventful few weeks for umpires during this series. At Lord’s they were too busy sending batsmen back; at Trent Bridge they’ve generously allowed batsmen some leeway until today, when they reverted to type. Former England opener Tim Robinson, who’s currently a first-class umpire, can’t get enough of the action.

Robinson’s debut was in the Bombay Test of 1984-85, a match remembered as much for Laxman Sivaramakrishnan’s googlies as the contentious umpiring decisions. In fact Robinson’s dismissal in the second innings, lbw to Kapil Dev, was one of the talking points of the match. He recalls being angry at the time but empathises with the umpire now that he's one himself.

Just a little while before this diary landed up on Robinson's lap, umpire Simon Taufel has sent back Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly, both to questionable decisions. Robinson, who’s aspiring to be included in the ICC panel, twitches when asked about them. Here he is working his way onto the Elite Panel, and here are these spectators cursing the umpires out in the middle.

Does he think he can cope with the pressures? “The advantage I have is that I was an opener who spent a lot of time in the middle as a batsman,” he says. “I didn’t want to smash it to all parts and it was more a case of occupying the crease for long periods. I had the gift of being able to concentrate for long periods of time. Obviously as an umpire that is a similar sort of requirement.”

And spend time in the middle, he well could. Indian viewers will remember Robinson’s beaver-like 160 at Delhi, an innings spanning eight-and-a-half-hours that set the stage for England’s series-levelling win. His 74 at Madras (a mini-epic which consumed close to four hours) and 96 at Calcutta (a painstaking six-hour effort) paved the way for a series triumph, one which no England side has managed since.

“In the first Test, Siva was simply unplayable,” he recalls. “I’d never seen anything like that. We couldn’t read him at all and it needed some hard work at the nets. More than anything it was confidence. In the second Test I got the better for him but it was a great challenge. I didn’t know we were the last English side to win there! We must have been a good side then.”

Which Indian player does he remember most from that series? “Oh surely Azza,” he says with a smile, “he got those three hundreds on the trot and he was so, so wristy.” Just as he utters those words, VVS Laxman, another wristy master who is often compared to Azhar, whips one past midwicket for four. “Just like that.”