I think it's an absolute disgrace to the game. It can breed the thought in the minds of younger (and not-so-younger) people that they can undermine authority. Whatever happened to 'The umpire's decision is final'?
a classic example of the stupidity of the system was today when Ian Gould, the on-field umpire, gave Mitchell Johnson out, caught behind. Johnson asked for a referral, and the 3rd umpire (Mark Benson) upheld the umpire's decision, because he reckoned there was insufficient evidence to the contrary. Huh? He must have been looking at a different screen to me, because whenever there is a skinny nick on the ball, the basic 'shape' of the ball changes ie, the rotation of the ball changes at point of contact. On the hotspot replay, there was no change in the rotation at all, yet Benson failed to see that?
Why spend a heap of money on a system that is so obviously flawed?

oh wow! you have to be THAT observant? I suddenly have more respect for umpires now

India is No.1 in Test rankings for the FIRST TIME EVER!!! Yayyy!! Can they stay there long? Unlikely....since they play 2 Tests (and 45 ODIs) the next year while SA plays 6 and Australia 8 next year...talk of proper scheduling...

West Indies almost knock the Aussies out in a Test....double yayyyyyyy (especially because the Aussie media trashed this very same Windies side after the first Test )

Well done to India for that, but two tests in a year, thats disgraceful. How do the players feel about that I wonder, is it all one dayers and twenty twenty for them or do they still love test cricket?

Players WANT to play Tests...thankfully, the present set of players all talk of how Tests are the real thing and want to prove their worth in Tests (Heard in a TV interview that Sehwag in fact is planning to retire from T20s after the next IPL and next T20 World Cup too, though he's just 31!)....guess players don't have much say and as Dhoni said the other day, they can only try and prove their worth and give their best in whatever format they are asked to play!

The next "generation" of players like Raina, Rohit Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja et al play the Ranji Trophy (4-day domestic comp) but don't think they are too keen on pushing for Test spots (unless they are so well aware that they won't get chances unless the present lot moves on).

Also loved Sehwag's reaction to his missing a third triple ton in Tests by 7 runs. He said he's still very happy and said not too many people can say they scored two Test triple hundreds and a 293 in their careers and he was very sure he will get another chance to score a Test triple ton!!! love this guy's spirit

What a game today! The Aussies looked like they had no chance to win but we came back. I think North should get dropped. Not doing alot in attack and as the slip.

Pakistan is the most inconsistent team in world cricket, even worse than the west indies in this regard.....how in the world could they have lost this Test? I don't know whether to laugh at the way they gave this Test up or to cry at the one chance they are unlikely to get in the near future again to beat Australia....

But seriously, don't think Australia is half the force they were 3-4 years ago....and the fact that almost all teams are sailing in the same boat tells you about the falling standards of the game the world over

Well done to the Aussies they looked gone.
Now I'm not a big fan of Pontings captancy but the abuse he's received in the media re the decision to bat first is disgraceful. Actually the print media in my state has been disgraceful about the whole game. Rather than acknowledge the performance of the Pakistan bowlers in the first innings the opening lines were Drug Tainted bowler.... and proceeded to explore the drug history of Asif rather than the terrific bowling performance. What happened to reading a paper to find out the facts. Columns arwe there for opinion, articles should state the facts.

I wasn't thrilled about the result. All I will say is that the ICC may want to have a look at certain aspects of the game...

I didnt check the odds, if thats what you mean.

Seeing as most chat is about Aus/ Pakistan, I thought I'd weigh in from SA about the epic (credit due to England) Test against SA.
This is why sometimes a drawn Test will be better than any T20 or ODI, it ebbed and flowed and England did grit it out for a day and a half against good bowling.
Also, I believe this is the first time that the referral system actually did what it was supposed to and turned over blatant umpiring mistakes, like Daryl Harper giving Ashwell Prince out even though he missed the ball by a foot.
Looking forward to the final at the Wanderers and hopefully a big SA win!

Yes, the Cape Town game was certainly a magnificent example of Test cricket at its best – even more so than the Centurion Test, because the fortunes swung to and fro even more. Let's hope that the Wanderers game is a fitting end to a fine series.

Hey now talking about IPL T20 which is currently playing in India. After this T20 World Cup is coming up which will be play in West Indies. Enjoy...