Tuesday, January 08, 2008

Its not the fault of the Umpires, Its the fault of the System..

Steve Bucknor has been in the lime-light for all the mistakes he did in terms of giving decisions against the recent Sydney cricket test series - India Vs Australia. Mr. Benson, the other umpire was also in the lime-light while sunil gavasker took him left and right while he gave a wrong decision by asking the players standing on the field whether the catch was taken correctly or not.


Well i frankly think its not the mistake of the Umpires, but its the mistake of the System we are in. Every human is bound to make errors. When the whole world is now picking up on the Steve bucknor i am supporting him now. Why? Even when the whole world can stand in his place to watch how the umpiring goes on, its difficult to get to know the actual fact of whether the bat was knicked to the ball, whether the catch was taken properly until you sit in your sofa in your home and watch the technology show you the replays by zooming in. Well, i am also one among you to have been sad for the decisions that went against india, but i strongly feel thats the mistake of our system and not the umpring human beings.

So what is the solution now? How should the system change? Given the fact that any human can commit errors, some times when your day is black you commit more errors, the soultion is to make the silent third umpire more power ful with technology on his side and make the on-field umpire less powerful interms of decision making. I feel this could resolve a lot of conficts having a fair-play games playing in the sporting fair spirit.

Fielders can appeal to a standing umpire on the field. Umpire can give his decision either by checking with the third umpire or giving himself. If the batsman does not agree to the decision of the standing umpire (most batsmen know if they have knicked it or not..), they can stay on the field and the decision should be carry forwarded to the third umpire who is well equipped. This doesnt mean every batsman wants to take advantage of it to stand on the field to be only thrown out even though he knicked it (while the technology shows it clearly). Its only for the batsman who want the confirmation. The third umpire should be able to make a re-decision and rule-out the decision made by the standing umpire and get the batsman going and not fall-back to the pity poor decision. This way umpires who make errors can have a point based system to count on their wrong decisions. Rankings of umpires can be given based on the same. This should be the solution even in case of LBW situations where there is a bigger probability of giving a person out or not-out. The third umpire with his technology should be made the super power to ensure the game goes into a fair play.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

i have evry reason to belve becknor descn was more of personal grudge towards india and not human error ,
one can confirm it with seeing his decsn towards india in last 1-2 yrs

Yogesh said...

This is not about the decision was intentional or not...it is about the process...I agree with Arun, he has mentioned a true issue here, and a right solution too. Why someone is considered superior, while everyone is knowing he is wrong. Blaming only will not solve any purpose, this is the time, when the technology should become important and wrong decisions should be overruled by right ones. Thanks. ~Yogesh

Arun Kumar Madas said...

And to just add up to how technology is improving, the other day i was watching Sania Mirza Vs Venus Williams... (Watching Tennis after a long time) and i found a new rule added to the Tennis.

If the player feels that the umprie has given a wrong decision, player can CHALLENGE the umpire for a third umpire(A Technology beside him)... If player wins, he is in... If player looses he looses one of his 4 chances of challenging the standing umpire..

I just loved it.. Why cant we have such a rule in cricket as well for a fair play game... ???