Let's stop embarrassing the umpires
In the Age , Greg Baum gives his view on the ICC's move towards player referrals to the third umpire.
Brydon Coverdale
25-Feb-2013
In the Age, Greg Baum gives his view on the ICC's move towards player referrals to the third umpire.
It is perverse that within seconds of an umpire's decision, the only interested parties who do not know whether it was right or wrong are those most affected by it. It was this dynamic that embarrassed the umpires in the Sydney Test earlier this year and contributed to the escalating nastiness.
This technology will not be resisted, and nor should it. In this, other sports also are instructive. Tennis teaches that players used their limited referrals wisely. Experience teaches that the pause in play, as long as it is not protracted, adds an agreeable tension. But the cricket committee was wise to exclude from consideration the more speculative aspects of technology, such as what would have happened to the ball after it had hit a batsman's pad.
Brydon Coverdale is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo. He tweets here