Ruling on the review system
George Binoy
25-Feb-2013
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The new umpire referral system offers plenty to the game, minimising unjust dismissals or unfair non-dismissals and adding a little drama, writes Mark Richardson in the Herald on Sunday.
I originally thought it would not work simply because of the defensiveness in the world of adjudicating officialdom, in all sports. I questioned whether umpires would be prepared to have their decisions overturned for fear of being left red-faced out in the middle. It would appear, following a meeting between the ICC officials and the Sky TV commentary team before the current Test, that the umpires are quite happy to accept their mistakes so long as the right semantics are adhered to.
The referral system in operation here for the first time has generated plenty of interest, but the possible spinoffs might end up being more fascinating than the concept itself, writes Dylan Cleaver in the Herald on Sunday.
You may well see batsmen taking guard on off stump when playing the likes of Daniel Vettori, who possesses a wonderful arm ball that often cannons into the front pad with no reward. An off stump guard will help them get their front pad outside the line of off stump, negating the chance of a leg before as long as they're playing a shot.
In the same paper, Dylan Cleaver also looks back at some of the great moments in cricket history which might have ended differently if the umpires of yesteryear had access to video reviews.
A definition of irony is learning about batting from Chris Martin. And that's just the kind of comment he probably doesn't want to read, writes Michael Donaldson in the Sunday Star Times.
Is Martin upset he's so maligned?
"Kind of," he says, scratching his shaved head. "I always feel like my wicket sums up our whole batting performance `here comes the No11, he's not going to be around long' boom, gone and we're all out in 50 overs and that sums up our whole day. I'm the exclamation mark on a poor performance."
George Binoy is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo