Use technology for front-foot no-balls - Ford

Sri Lanka's coach, Graham Ford, has suggested front-foot no-ball calls be made purely via the use of technology, on a day in which his team was on the receiving end of an incorrect umpiring decision*.

Nuwan Pradeep bowled Alex Hales in the 46th over of England's innings but was denied the wicket when umpire Rod Tucker immediately deemed the bowler to have overstepped. Replays showed a fraction of Pradeep's boot had in fact been behind the line.

Sri Lanka's team management then unfurled a national flag from the dressing room balcony as a "gesture of support" for their players. This flag was later taken down, after MCC informed team management that no flags or banners were allowed at Lord's.

Ford said Tucker had repeatedly apologised for the mistake, but said cricket should take no-ball calls out of umpires' hands.

"I guess the ICC are going to have to look at it," Ford said. "It just seems strange that with the technology that is available you can get a line call wrong. The line doesn't move, and surely we can get to a point where that problem can be taken out of cricket. You'd think the best solution would be for the umpires to worry about what's going on down the other end and for technology to look after the line call."

A large percentage of no-ball calls are already referred to the third umpire - but this is usually only when a batsman has been given out, and the umpires wish to confirm that the delivery was legal. In this case, neither Tucker nor the Sri Lanka team could have reviewed the decision, since a no-ball call cannot be overturned once the on-field umpire has signaled it. The rationale here is that batsmen may change their stroke on hearing it is a no-ball, though in this case Hales admitted that he was not aware the bowler had overstepped until after his stumps had been rattled.

"Umpiring is a ridiculously hard job anyway," Ford said. "Take one bit of pressure and one little problem away from them. The eye specialists all tell you that it's very difficult to be focusing on something a metre away and then focus on something 22 yards away within a split second. Maybe take that problem away from them and let them get on with the decision-making."

There had also been consternation in the Sri Lanka dressing room when a similar incident occurred during the third day of the Chester-le-Street Test. On that occasion, Steven Finn trod close to the line when bowling the delivery that dismissed Kaushal Silva in the second innings. The batsman was given out, then the front foot reviewed by the third umpire, who upheld the decision when a fraction of Finn's boot was shown to have landed behind the line.

Ford said Sri Lanka had eventually come to peace with that decision. But team management had approached match referee Andy Pycroft for the second time in the series over no-ball decisions.

"There was a very tight no-ball incident in Durham," Ford said. "On our little TV in the dressing room, it looked as though it was a no-ball. We thought that one of our batsmen had been harshly dealt with. When we went across to the match referee, they showed us on their high definition screen that there was actually something behind the line. That was a legal delivery. Today when we went to see the match referee, this was more thinking whether we had the wrong picture again on our TV screen, and to go across and confirm."

The flag display meanwhile, occurred for less than an hour. Both Ford and team manager, Charith Senanayake, said they were happy to immediately take it down, once they were informed of MCC's policy about banners and flags in the ground. MCC had allowed Sri Lanka Cricket to host a fundraiser in the Lord's long room last weekend.

"At that stage, I thought the boys were fighting really hard out there and showing a lot of character, but a few things hadn't gone their way. Putting the flag out was to show a bit of support from the dressing room, try and boost the morale and let them know we're really supporting them. That was the feeling from our lads. We then found out that's not the done thing, and had to take it down. I fully understand that, and it's not an issue at all."