Bucknor will stand at Perth: ICC

	If the Indian team management had its way, Steve Bucknor would not stand in the third Test in Perth © AFP

The under-fire umpire Steve Bucknor will not be replaced for the third Test between Australia and India in Perth, despite an official protest from the Indian board following his controversial performance in Sydney.

The Indian board demanded that Bucknor be stood down for the third Test, which gets underway on January 16, after a string of errors contributed to India's thrilling last-ditch defeat in Sydney. But an ICC spokesman invoked the playing conditions that both teams signed up to before the series, saying: "Neither team has a right to object to an umpire's appointment."

Bucknor's colleague in Sydney, Mark Benson, is not due to stand in Perth - the Pakistani umpire Asad Rauf is earmarked to replace him. The only way Bucknor could have been removed from the for that Test would have been if the executive board took up the issue and a majority voted in favour of removing him.

That has not, however, happened, and Bucknor, 61, is instead preparing to stand in his 121st Test, which is more than any other official in history.