Referrals and reviews
Sadly what we are going to remember from this series is mostly poor - a ground fit for a donkey derby, a collapse to 51 all out, injuries to Flintoff, Harmison and Sidebottom and farcical decision making.
We are all agreed that we want better decision making but the current system is taking the spontaneity of the game away and replacing it with unimproved decision making. The excitement of the fall of a wicket is now tainted by a delay whilst players decide whether to call for a referral and then possibly a delay when a second decision is made armed with some but not all of the technology available. Additionally the third umpire is looking for 'evidence' (funny word that - 'evidence') that the first umpire was wrong so that we move from the batsman getting the benefit of the doubt to the umpire getting thebenefit of the doubt. Not only is the system error prone but on the basis of what we've seen in this series the operators are also error prone.
Coupled with that we get the ridiculous sight of players trying to persuade the umpires to review their own decision so that they don't use up one of their precious referrals. That would all be bad enough if it led to more accurate decisions but we've seen even more errors caused by obscure criteria.
My solution would be to put all decisions in the hands of the umpires again armed with the best available technology - a team of say four working together constantly in communication and asking the correct question - it works really well in rugby.
Fortunately it won't affect those of us who play proper cricket.
1 comment:
Well you know my view! I think the ICC have introduced use of technology too late and without a clear and well thought out plan for rollout. As I think I've said before, in business you come under severe criticism and often get sacked for such poor management - in sports admin it seems par for the course.
I'd like to see the umpire in the middle have access to all technology that TV viewers get which he or she should be able to access at the touch of a button on a small screen they have with them at all times. No TV umpire and no over-ruling of on-pitch umpires, helping to keep respect. And no referrals by players.
This is something that the ICC should have been thinking about 5+ years ago, partnering with a technology company to provide what was needed for umpires. And they should have had it in place a couple of years ago.
The botched way the ICC have introduced technology into decision making, it wouldn't surprise me if we went back to a couple of years of "human only" decision making, while they get their act together. But ultimately, trying to prevent use of technology in umpiring is a losing battle so I believe it's not a question of whether it should be used, but how it most effectively used.
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