Umpire referalls…

….threaten to go down the drain!

I’m really disappointed that people are just foul-mouthing the referral system!

It really is the only way that test cricket can be made more competitive.

As an example, let’s rewind back about 13 months to Sydney.

Ishant Sharma bowls to Symmo.

He gets a nick.

The sound reverberated on my plate.

Bucknor’s ear didn’t catch it.

India wave ‘bye bye’ to their chances of winning the test.

If the referral system had been there, Ishant could’ve asked for a referral. The 3rd ump would’ve said it was out and the series wouldn’t have generated as much controversy as it did.

Likewise, there are so many cases of bowlers gaining the brunt of poor decisions by umps. Test matches drift away even more when bowlers find everything going against them.

It worked like a charm during the India-Sri Lanka test series (when it made its debut).

I think there are a couple of grey areas that need to be tinkered if the system is to be successful:
1. Let the 3rd ump make the decision rather than explaining the situation to the on-field ump. It really does complicate manners. It’s like telling a blind person that he has to look for the board which says ‘Wall St.’

2. Allow the 3rd ump to use all the technology available. He’d then be able to make a decision which everyone would be happy with.

In addition, I don’t think we should be listening to whatHarmison says about the referral, as he isn’t really the best person out there to give a judgement on anything at all!

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Referral system – Success or Failure?

I know, it may be too early to come to conclusions, but, from what I’ve seen of it, there are some very inherent flaws in the system.

I’m sure most of you are aware of the fact that the 3rd umpire, as far as hawk – eye is concerned’, only has access to the pictures which show the path of the ball till the moment of impact with the bat. Frankly, I’m at a loss to understand why this is so. The ICC honchos say that hawk-eye doesn’t take into consideration the effects of wind and swing on the path of the ball, but I feel that the umpire would have enough brains to look at the ball and see whether it would’ve hit the stumps.

Secondly, a quite funny regulation that I came to know of only during the course of the test match stated that the 3rd umpire conveys what he has found from TV replays and all that to the field umpire, who then makes the decision. How stupid is that! Obviously, the on – field umpire has no access to TVs, so let the 3rd umpire make the decision instead of wasting time conveying it to the on – field dude!

Thirdly, I can’t understand why the 3rd ump isn’t allowed access to other stuff like snicko, hotspot. Yesterday’s decision on the appeal by Dilshan regd his dimissal really showed why we need the snicko. He had appeared to edge the ball to the keeper. However, he had also hit the bat with his ground (which was proven by the puff of dust emerging), which made it difficult for the ump to really conclude whether the sound was from bat hitting ground or ball, and therefore gave the decision in favour of the batsman!

Well, its too early to make the verdict, but the basic rules of the ‘refferals’ are quite flawed, and the ICC need to have a hard look at them if they want this to be a success!

BTW, just check out this video. It’s simply hilarious, I don’t want to spoil the fun, so go ahead and enjoy it!