Officiating In Matches Involving India And Especially India-Pakistan Is Intimidating: Ian Gould

Ian Gould, the former member of the ICC Elite Panel of Umpires, has revealed his experience of officiating in matches involving India and especially when they are locking horns with arch-rivals Pakistan as ‘intimidating’, because of the amount of crowd and support that they receive irrespective of where and when they play.

Gould, who retired from official duties last year after having stood in more than 250 international games including 7-8 India-Pakistan fixtures, heaped praise on the players from both sides, adding that they get along with each other pretty well.

“It’s intimidating. Not the players. The players are outstanding people. I’ve done seven, eight India-Pakistan games and the guys are real good people. They get on with each other,” Ian Gould told ESPNCricinfo.

He added: “If you allow a crowd to get to you, all that noise and Mexican waves, or whatever, can distract you. Then you start missing bits and pieces and it’s a difficult place to be. But, you know, a couple of lads, last year or two years ago, did Bangladesh-Sri Lanka and there wasn’t one seamer picked in both sides. That would have been pretty difficult.

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Ian Gould has officiated in almost every India-Pakistan game in the past decade

The most famous Indo-Pakistan game which Ian Gould officiated has got to be the 2011 World Cup semi-final in Mohali where the umpire’s original LBW decision that deemed Sachin Tendulkar out off the bowling of Saeed Ajmal, was controversially overturned thanks to the Decision Review System.

A few months earlier, Gould opened up about the whole incident, adding he still to this day believes that Sachin was out.

“When I gave him out at Mohali, I’m thinking this is out. I will sit here and guarantee you, if I see it again, I’d still give it out, simple as that. He talked to Gambhir and looked like he was going to walk out, and I’m thinking thank God for that, then he spun on his heels and made that T sign and the world stopped,” Gould had told BBC 5 Live Sport.

Eventually, Tendulkar survived and he eventually went on to score 85, an innings which along Suresh Raina’s whirlwind knock in the end, proved to be the difference between India posting 215 and what they eventually did.

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