UDRS non-use ridiculous

Lawrence Booth watches a talk by Hawk-Eye founder, Paul Hawkins, and a debate between Geoffrey Boycott and umpire Billy Bowden over the use of technology in cricket, after which he finds it 'teeth-grindingly stupid' that the ICC and Sky Sports can't agree on how to split the cost of the UDRS system, due to which it can't be used in the England-Bangladesh series. Read his report in the Wisden Cricketer:

I’ve argued before in this blog about the benefits of the UDRS system and the misunderstandings that allow its critics to use the cliché about it not being cricket. But one sequence during Hawkins’ lecture was especially persuasive in its attempts to dismantle cherished truths.

Hawkins showed footage of India legspinner Amit Mishra drifting one towards leg before striking South Africa’s Jacques Kallis on the pads. He then asked the audience to adjudicate, with the ball frozen at the point of impact. About 15-20% of the room said “out”. Hawkins went on to show the ball would have hit leg-stump easily, despite wicket-keeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s misleading presence outside leg-stump: irrelevant, said Hawkins, who has studied enough of these incidents to speak with authority on the matter.

He then replayed the same Mishra delivery, this time replacing Kallis with an imaginary left-hander, the result being that the ball pitched on off-stump before straightening. A small gasp: stone-dead!