Keep current umpiring system - Ponting

Ricky Ponting, the Australian captain, has said that the current system of umpiring should stay inspite of a spate of debatable decisions during the third Test at Adelaide.

Ponting said that luck with umpiring decisions was a part of cricket and that he wasn't an advocate of the increased use of technology. "I have never been a big fan of technology just for the simple fact that the technology that has been used and trialled (by the International Cricket Council) over last few years hasn't been accurate enough anyway to give you conclusive evidence on dismissal," Ponting told AFP. "It's just part of the game as far as I am concerned. I can't comment on umpires' decisions anyway, but you take the good with the bad. The human element in the game is vital to cricket. Even speaking to the umpires who officiated in the Super Test in Sydney where the technology was used they didn't approve of it either. I think the people we can't leave out of this are the umpires. It's good to get the umpires' views as well. I know they weren't big on the idea. The less technology for me, the better."

Shivnarine Chanderpaul, the West Indian captain, also agreed with Ponting. West Indies were on the receiving end of several debatable decisions from Billy Bowden and Aleem Dar.

Ponting also said that the workload on the umpires needed to be looked at. "One of the major problems might be just the amount of umpiring these guys are doing. There are only seven umpires on the international panel. We're always talking about the amount of cricket we are playing, well, someone has to be umpiring those games and if there's only seven there then I'm sure it will be long, hard hours and tours on each of the umpires as well. That's something that can be looked at."

Mark Waugh, the former Australian batsman, echoes Ponting's views on technology. "To my way of thinking we can only use the third umpire for line decisions, stumpings, run outs and to see if the ball has pitched in line with leg-stump for lbws. I don't think it can be used for anything else. I think there's still too much doubt. A lot of the time you can't see inside edges. I just think it's still too much of a grey area even using the third umpire."