Amid the debate over Umpire’s Call to be done away with, noted cricket commentator Harsha Bhogle on 19 February said that the cricket needs an alternative. He cited that ball tracking technology is not that ready yet.
Taking to X, he wrote, “A lot of influential people are asking for Umpire’s Call to be done away with. But we need an alternative. Some part of the ball hitting any part of the stump isn’t good enough, isn’t an option yet because ball tracking technology isn’t that ready yet. Eager to hear thoughts that will produce better outcomes.”
Earlier on 18 February, England Test captain Ben Stokes called for the Decision Review System (DRS) to scrap the umpire’s call. His comments arrived after Zak Crawley was given out LBW on Umpire’s Call.
However, confusion began after the England team reportedly was given to understand that the ball was missing the stumps and it is clear in the replay.
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“He (match referee Jeff Crowe) was giving us some information around how it was judged to be given out when the ball was not hitting the stumps on the DRS replay. The ball did not hit the stumps on the replay,” Cricbuzz quoted Stokes telling TalkSport while answering a query over his conversation with the match referee.
After India defeated England in the third Test at Rajkot by a whopping 434 runs, both Stokes and England coach Brendon McCullum were seen speaking to Crowe.
“Apparently it was that the numbers said it was hitting the stumps but the image was wrong, I don’t really understand what has gone on there. I think when people are in charge of it say something has gone wrong that is enough in itself,” he added.
Stokes even went on to talk about the removal of Umpire’s Call. “It is not something you pin down as a result of the game. So many factors in to. Sometimes when you are on the wrong end of those decisions it hurts but that is part of the game. You want them to go your way, sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t.”
“You just want a level playing field. The umpires have an incredibly hard job as it is, especially in India when the ball is spinning. My personal opinion is if the ball is hitting the stumps, it is hitting the stumps. They should take away the umpire’s call if I’m being perfectly honest. I don’t want to get too much into it because it sounds like we are moaning and saying that is why we lost the Test match,” he added.
In the second innings of the 3rd Test on Day 4, Crawley was given out lbw to Jasprit Bumrah on 11. When Kumar Dharmasena upheld India’s appeal, he reviewed the decision only to be declared out in DRS on Umpire’s Call. At that time, England were 18 for 2.
Meanwhile, Stokes’ comments about the accuracy of the DRS prompted Paul Hawkins – creator of Hawk-Eye’s ball-tracking technology – to defend the system and the processes in place.
“There isn’t [even] a one percent chance of it being wrong,” ESPNcricinfo quoted Hawkins telling the Sunday Times. “For every DRS [incident], we do screen-grabs which show everything the [Hawk-Eye] operator shows. This is automatic, we can’t manipulate it, and that immediately goes to the ICC [the game’s governing body] as part of the quality control process.”
“There are also two independent tracking systems. The cameras are the same, but the operators do their calibrations and the manual bit independently. This provides back-up in the unlikely event that one crashes. Even if there is an LBW shout, let alone a review, the person that plays the review to TV [must check] before anything goes to air that both trajectories give the same result, and are hitting the stumps in the same place.
“It’s not a fully automated system, but a lot is done to eliminate human error by having checks, training and this process of two people doing things independently, [which] has pretty much always been there,” he added.
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Published: 19 Feb 2024, 06:06 PM IST