Umpires stick together in new referrals
Will Luke
25-Feb-2013
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The ECB's umpire referral scheme, which made its debut last Sunday, is already courting unease and controversy according to Steve James in today's Sunday Telegraph.
Anyway Leadbeater sided with Lloyds and upheld the decision, even though it was clear Adams was a long way down the pitch. But what was thoroughly bemusing was that Leadbeater also said afterwards that, if Lloyds had given Adams not out, he would still have backed the decision upon referral from the fielding side. But which one was correct? That's what we wanted to know.
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Maybe overall we were expecting too much. The system probably needed a howler from an on-field umpire last week to establish early credibility. Say a big inside edge on a given lbw. That seems the likeliest route for a successful referral. In truth we do not want heaps of referrals every match. Hopefully the players will quickly learn what is worth referring and what is not and, on those occasions, maybe the TV umpires will gradually loosen their Masonic-like handshakes with their on-field colleagues.
Will Luke is assistant editor of ESPNcricinfo