I get more and more annoyed with the BCCI. They are trying to ruin the game of Cricket by forcing the ICC to change the DRS system and with the first test between England and India starting on Thursday it has come out that umpires will be making all lbw decisions without any technological help No hawk-eye, no hot-spot or even the tramlines on screen to help the third umpire see where the ball pitched and struck a batsman.
Basically it is completely down to the umpires and whilst umpiring has become much better in recent years – a lot of that is down to the DRS allowing umpires to go more with their gut knowing that they could overturn a decision if wrong. It has increased the correct decisions to 97-98% instead of 92-94% that is was before.
I must say that I love DRS and all the technology that cricket has been using for the past few years. The one thing that doesn’t work is catches and the foreshortening of the lens when they go to replay. Players know instinctively whether they have caught the ball or not and players/umpires need to rely on what the catcher says unless the replay shows and obvious lie from the player – i.e the video below when Philip Hughes claimed a catch off Alistair Cook despite the fact he knew it didn’t carry.
There was an incident in the T20 at Chelmsford the other night when Scott Styris caught a Kent batsman – I think it was Darren Stevens – at third man with a wonderful tumbling catch. It was a catch but the players refused to take Styris’ word for it and the replays showed some doubt in the eyes of the third umpire and it was given not out. I know it was out – I know it was a good catch. Anyone who had played cricket to any standard knows a good catch when they see it but the onus as the rules are written are that the third umpire has to be 100% sure – not 99% sure of a catch. This is the only way when in my opinion technology harms the sport.
With no DRS we’d have no reversal of big obvious errors like the video below when Michael Clarke hit the cover off the ball to short leg and didn’t walk and was not given out by the umpire.
To sum up the BCCI’s stubborness is a disgrace and the way the ICC is cow-towing to it sickens me. I can’t wait until the great Sachin Tendaulkar is in his 90s at Lords and gets given out on an absolute shocker that TV replays would overturn. I wonder what they’ll be saying then and also I have a sneaky feeling a lot of cricket fans around the world will be hoping for the same.
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