Simon Taufel won the ICC Umpire of the Year award for five years straight - from 2004 to 2008 - but to some India fans, he'll always remain the umpire who denied Sachin Tendulkar a hundred during the 2007 Trent Bridge Test. Taufel has spoken in detail about that decision on an episode of the 22 Yarns podcast hosted by Gaurav Kapur, and revealed how a frank chat with Tendulkar the next day helped them forge a relationship based on "mutual respect for each other and our abilities".
Tendulkar was batting on 91 when he shouldered arms to a nip-backer from Paul Collingwood, and Taufel raised his finger. Ball-tracking, however, suggested the ball would have gone on to miss the stumps.
"Well, I'm thinking, shouldered arms, so benefit of the doubt probably to the bowler, and I've given Sachin out after a bit of thought," Taufel recalled. "Now, of course, Sachin's not happy with the decision. It's unusual for him to stand around, and he did stand there for a little bit of time, and then he went. I could see that he wasn't happy.
"[…] Later on Hawkeye showed that the ball was predicted to miss the off stump by maybe an inch. And I just knew what the response was going to be like from world cricket; so I didn't open Cricinfo, I didn't read any newspapers, I knew that I was going to be... not the flavour of the month in the media.
"The following morning I happened to pass by Sachin on my normal morning walk out to the middle […] and I come across Sachin and I said, 'look, yesterday I got it wrong, you know? I've looked at it, I got it wrong.' He said, 'look, Simon, I know.' He said, 'you're a good umpire, you don't often get many wrong, it's okay, don't worry about it.'
"And out of that sort of exchange, which wasn't an apology for the sake of making him feel better or me feel better, it was just an acknowledgment that we were both out there doing our best. This is sport, and I wanted to acknowledge that I knew the fact that he was unhappy, and I was doing my best to make sure that that didn't happen again. That was really the underlying message.
"[…] I'm a big believer that breakdowns lead to breakthroughs, and I think that was an example where Sachin and I had a moment that wasn't particularly pleasant, and I wanted him to know that I took my job seriously and I was going to make sure that that didn't happen again. And I think out of that exchange, that relationship bank account got a massive credit, because I think that breakdown moment did lead to a breakthrough.
"We have an ongoing mutual respect for each other and our abilities, because I've got Sachin wrong a number of times, not just on that one occasion. I've got the best in the world wrong. And I've learned from all those examples, but one thing that will always be with me, apart from those mistakes, is the respect and the trust and the integrity of our relationships as we go forward."
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Speaking of other occasions where he got decisions wrong, Taufel brought up one where Tendulkar was the beneficiary, during the 2005 Delhi Test against Sri Lanka, where he made his 35th Test century to go past Sunil Gavaskar's then Test-record tally of hundreds.
ESPNcricinfo's report of the first day's play says Tendulkar survived "two perilous lbw appeals" before getting to his hundred - one against Dilhara Fernando on 24, the other against Muttiah Muralitharan on 38. Taufel didn't specify which one he was referring to.
"I was doing a Test match at Feroz Shah Kotla between India and Sri Lanka, and Sachin does get hit on the pads early on in the innings, and I've given it not out," Taufel said. "He goes on to score a hundred, which I think was his record-breaking hundred at that period of time, but no one's talking about that. No one remembers that, that's not on YouTube anywhere.
"They're all talking about Sachin being robbed on 91 [at Trent Bridge], they don't talk about the not-out where he goes on to score a hundred. Tom Moody, who was the [then] Sri Lankan coach, wasn't particularly happy with me, because of [that decision]."
On MS Dhoni's sense of humour
Speaking about the various characters he interacted with during his umpiring career, Taufel picked out MS Dhoni for his sense of humour.
"MS Dhoni, I find him amazing. He's got one of the best cricket brains I've ever come across - [him,] Darren Lehmann and Shane Warne would be the top three cricket brains that I've been fortunate to come across. MS Dhoni is so calm - he's so relaxed - but he's also got a sense of humour that most people wouldn't get to see.
"I remember sitting down in a change room at Durban with him. We'd just come off a Test match in Cape Town. Sreesanth had bowled in that previous game, [there were] over-rate challenges because Sree takes a long time to bowl his overs, and we'd sat down in these leather chairs in the umpires' room in Durban.
[Taufel may have mixed up the venues, because the only Test series in which Dhoni captained Sreesanth in South Africa was in 2010-11, where the second Test was in Durban and the third - in which Taufel officiated - was in Cape Town.]
"We're just having an informal chat, and MS is looking at these black leather chairs in the umpires' room, and he says, 'these chairs are okay, they're pretty good, and I was thinking, how can I get a couple of these, I wouldn't mind buying some of these and taking them home'. I'm thinking, I'm trying to have a serious discussion with you about over rates and you're worried about these leather chairs.
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"And I said, 'MS, you've now been done for over rates in Cape Town, and if you've got the same problems here in Durban, we're talking about suspension territory.' He's almost rubbed his hands together, and [said], 'suspension? I wouldn't mind a game off, because I'm playing a lot of cricket at the moment', and it just blew me away. I thought, this is something different that I haven't seen before. But that's the sense of humour and the relaxed nature of the character and you develop good relationships [with such people].
"Makhaya Ntini, another great one, as a fast bowler. What a character! He scored many centuries as a bowler on difficult pitches, and occasionally he'd come to me and say, 'Simon, what do you think I should do now? Where should I bowl this one?' And I said, mate, 'I've got my own challenges, I'm worrying about my own game! Bowl where you want to bowl, and do what you have to do!'"