Howzatt!!! Third Umpire?
- Ankit Jha
Is it justified to blame technology for the failure of an individual player on the cricket pitch? Is UDRS really swallowing the role of on field umpire or it just makes the game of Cricket more unblemished?
It was a no shiny day in Trent bridge of Nottingham, England, when Sachin Tendulkar on the verge of another magnificent hundred, having played 195 deliveries & scored 91 individual runs he defended one outside delivery from Paul Collingwood by pads, an unison appeal & God of cricket departed. Umpire was 3 times ICC Umpire of the year Simon Taufel. When the replays came out, it was clearly seen that ball was nowhere in the line of stumps, but the damage was done. Then came India’s tour Down under, new year test, Sydney, 3rd January, Australia were marginalized on 127 for 6, then 2 wrong decisions in the Australian innings & Andrew Symonds went on to make an unforgettable century. This match is counted to be one of the most controversial matches of all time. The Bucknor-Benson school of wrong decisions harmed India to lose the match by some 30 runs after suffering 9 wrong decisions.
- Indian Captain MS Dhoni asking for a review
The Umpire Decision Review System is a technology based system used for reviewing or questioning the decision made by the on field umpires in the game of cricket. This system was firs trialed in India vs Sri Lanka Test series of 2008, but since then it has been disliked by the Indian Cricket officials. It was officially relaunched in 2009 in Newzealand-Pakistaan Test Series. Earlier ICC made this system mandatory for all international matches which later was decided to leave it on the mutual decision of both playing teams, but it is still mandatory in all the ICC events. There are 3 basic components of this system these are, Hawk eye, Snickometer & Hot spot technology. These all technologies need no introduction for any cricket fans but for those who do not have much interest in cricket, Hawk eye is a ball tracking technology which is used for the LBW appeals. Snickometer is used for detecting sounds made by a cricket bat or pads, where as Hot spot is a technology which illuminates the contact of ball with bat or pad. A batsman or fielding captain makes a t shape for questioning the decision of on field umpires.
From the very first time it was announced, it started getting positive & negative responses. After losing the series 2-1 from Sri Lanka, then Indian captain Anil Kumble criticised this system saying it can't be 100 percent correct. There has been various arguments for & against Decision Review System but it was being implemented in the international matches except in which it was mutually decided not to be used. But During the first test match of Ashes 2013, when English Batsman Jonathan Trott was given out by the third umpire because of a certain fault in the Hot Spot technology & at the the very climax of the same test last wicket of Australia fell in the form of Brad Haddin, this time also controversially, there were many questions arisen. Although, the production company apologised from Trott was it was too late for the Right Handed no. 3 batsman for England. In the case of Haddin too, decision was given on the basis of snickometer but Hotspot didn't find any edge. More questionable was the posture of on field umpire Aleem Dar when he apologised & raised his index finger for giving out, he clearly was amazed.
Every Technology is first criticised & then it is universally accepted, in the game of cricket, Day-night matches, Third Umpire Decision System, No Runner decisions were also questioned but now it had been well settled. The first & the strongest argument against UDRS is that it diminishes the credibility of the on field umpire as questioning for a review means Batsman or a bowler is not satisfied. The sole purpose of the UDRS is to correct the wrong decision made by the on field umpire. The argument from the ICC, the governing body of international Cricket is that their motive is to make the game flawless, there should be no sope for any controversy but there has been various controversies on the third umpire decisions. There is also one school of thought that says that some faults only make the game of cricket interesting.
There is no doubt that technology assists the human, but any technology can not be 100% corect especially in the sport like cricket where Ball swing, take turns, & moves on the different surfaces differently, how can a technology be so effective. For example, an LBW appeal on the Kingsmead Durban & Green Park, Kanpur will be on different accounts as later is a slow bouncing pitch from earlier. Still today on field umpires are the more important than review system as the success rate of referals are not even 50%. The only possible way to make Cricket flawless is to use Robot on the place of umpire & those robots should have Hawk eye technology installed in them, along with hot spot & Snickometers. Like wise we will lose Umpire too like Runners & Super
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