It's a mark of where cricket has gone in recent years that virtually no one has had a pop at Lyon for not walking when he knew he was out. The bile was reserved for Llong and review technology which has been used imperfectly more than a time or two now.
When Llong got it wrong, my initial reaction was to shrug and think that, no matter how much we use the best available technology, human fallibility will never be entirely replaced. Third umpires and video refs get it wrong often enough for there to be no other conclusion.
Technology has gone haywire from the beginning of time because of human error.
All those gentle musings disappeared, however, when the International Cricket Council appointed Llong to stand in this weekend's test against Sri Lanka - after putting out a press release admitting he'd got it wrong in the Australian test. That was followed by a further decision to remove Llong from third umpire in the second test and make him stand in the middle instead, a more prestigious role but obviously inspired by the pink ball blooper.
From error and controversy, promotion. Only the ICC could effectively reward an umpire after a test-altering clanger. They tweeted Llong had observed the correct protocol but got the wrong result. So that's all right, then. The cake tastes awful but it was mixed correctly. God bless England.
Most other sporting bodies take officials who have made howlers and either remove them from the pressure for a while and/or subject them to lower level stuff to get their confidence/ability up again. Cricket? Nah. They take the Llong view.
The inevitable occurred. Sri Lankan skipper Angelo Mathews tried to tickle one down legside only to get a snick and be caught behind. Not out, thundered Llong. Well, all right - it was more a puzzled shake of the head. Could have been anything.
New Zealand asked for a third umpire review and it appeared yet again Llong had missed the dismissal and was asked to change his decision. It was another key moment. The Sri Lankan runs chase was gathering momentum and Mathews' survival would have been crucial.
The ICC clearly wanted Llong back on the horse but succeeded only in helping the horse fall on him. He is reputedly a world-class umpire and received a remarkably polite reception from 400 mild-mannered Dunedinites on Friday. It was a long way from the welcome to former Australian captain Greg Chappell when he next turned out at Eden Park after the famed underarm incident. A wag from the large crowd rolled a lawn bowl towards the Australians, demonstrating not only humour but bias.
Llong should have endured the sort of greeting a corpse gives an undertaker; his very appearance in these tests harks back to that particular old world form of English snobbery (yes, I know India rules the cricket world these days but, in some things, India is more English than the English) which silently decrees their word is law and the rest of us can scuttle back down our holes.
It's a vanished world where protocol is king and results are things that go in Wisden. It's a certain kind of Englishman, the kind once moved to write to the Los Angeles Times when the Queen was visiting the US. He told the brash Americans not to rush up to the Queen when they saw her but to wait - as she would be brought around, like a dessert trolley.
It's to be hoped Llong doesn't make any more howlers in these two tests or we might be forced to conclude he's not only got too many Ls but not enough Is and the ICC has far, far too many Cs.
