Received death threats after dismissing Tendulkar before 100th ton: Bresnan

Former England all-rounder Tim Bresnan has revealed that he and Australian umpire Rod Tucker received death threats for dismissing Indian batting great Sachin Tendulkar, before he could reach his century, during the 2011 four-match Test series between the two sides.

Bresnan said that Tendulkar would have notched up his 100^th ton in international cricket, if Tucker had not wrongly adjudged him leg-before wicket.  

“He was on 99 international hundreds and there were no referrals in that series because the BCCI didn’t like it,” said Bresnan while speaking on the Yorkshire Cricket: Covers Off podcast.

“It was at The Oval in the last Test of the series. This ball, it was probably missing leg anyway, and umpire (Tucker), Aussie lad, shot him out. He was on 80-odd as well (91), definitely going to get it (his century). We win the series and go to number one in the world,” he added.

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The duo, Bresnan and Tucker, had to incur the wrath of Indian fans, for months after the incident, which included death threats via social media website Twitter and letters.

“We both got death threats, me and this umpire, we got death threats for ages after. I got them on Twitter and he (Tucker) had people writing to him to his home address and stuff, getting proper death threats going, ‘How dare you give him out? It was missing leg.’,” he said. “I caught up with him a few months later and he was like, ‘Mate, I’ve had to get a security guard and stuff.’ He had police protection around his gaff in Australia.”