REFER MADNESS

Here's the tip: during the first session of the first Ashes Test from Englan... Wales, someone will cop a howler and the commentators will burst into mass blurt: "They should have stuck with the referral system."

Umpires OK with referral system

The referral system — where players appeal by making a T-sign with their arms — is on trial in [the Windies] and its function will determine whether the review system is adopted permanently.

The England and Wales Cricket Board chairman Giles Clarke has already indicated, however, that he does not want it used for the Ashes.

Clarke has argued that the review system undermines the authority of the on-field officials, a claim supported by former Australian coach John Buchanan but rejected by umpires Daryl Harper of Australia and South Africa's Rudi Koertzen, who are officiating in the West Indies.

That said, the referral system, as it stands, is pants. Players appealing for decisions to be reviewed is ridiculous. Get them out of the frame and have the umpires refer any close call straight to the TV umpire.

Comments

[David Barry]

If you take the referrals out but allow consultation with the third umpire, then you slow the game down a LOT. We see with run-outs today that umpires will refer just about anything "just in case". With player-initiated referrals you limit it to at most two incorrect decisions per innings.

[Russ]

I don't mind the referral system; I wouldn't even mind more referrals per innings (including runouts, reverting to the umpire making a decision there and then). What I object to is the methodology for over-turning decisions. Depth free tv replays are woefully inadequate for determining most controversial decisions (from catches, to bounced balls, to lbws). If the ICC want to go this route they need to get serious about umpiring aids: acceleration sensors to measure changes in the ball's spin, hawkeye to determine where a ball pitches and strikes the batsman, and so on.

Because right now, from what I can tell, for every wrong decision over-turned, there are two decided no less ambiguously than the original call.

[Yobbo]

The problem with the umpires referring "close" decisions themselves is that they don't know when they have got it wrong.

Batsman know better than anyone whether or not they have hit a ball (whether its concerning a catch or an LBW). That's why the referral system as it stands currently works well. An umpire isn't going to refer an LBW he was going to give out on the basis that he thinks the batsman might have hit it - if he thought that he would just said no to begin with.

And they need to use the Hotspot technology. It's the best addition to analysis since replays themselves - it leaves practically zero doubt to whether a batsman has hit a ball or not.

[Tony T]

Hot spot rocks.