Umpires Paradise

[One World]

7.4 Muralitharan to Mohammad Ashraful, OUT: tosses up, keeps low, tries
to left it, hits him on the back-foot, huge shout for lbw, up goes
the finger of Rauf, this is a off spinner from Murali and just
missing leg stump, but decision goes in favour of bowler, Murali
on a hat-trick!

Bangladesh 35/3, Partnership of 0
Mohammad Ashraful lbw b Muralitharan 0 (1b 0x4 0x6)
Habibul Bashar 12* (16b 1x4) M Muralitharan 0.4-0-0-2

Whenever we start to do better this is the way ICC replies to us. I still believe if not given out like this, this match could go a long way after nice bowling performance.

[Spitfire_x86]

We've got a "bonus" wicket of Atapattu as well.

The 3rd umpire's mistake in the 1st day was really dissapoing though.

Edited on, September 13, 2005, 3:05 PM GMT, by Spitfire_x86.

[BioMEMS]

We need to introduce the use of technology is every aspect of the game. It might be more interesting to have human errors in umpiring. However, to be able to make completey impartial & accurate decisions we must use machines!

[Baundule]

I guess, we need some robots as umpires. Well, those may be programmed partially. So, we need again some robots as programmers. These programmers may be partial as well......

The first thing is to play well before blaming the umpiring and whatever. The world was never fair!

[hello_cricket]

Since lbw decisions are often controversial, should ICC decide to to refer such decisions to TV/Third umpire? Is this a good idea?

[BonBon]

I saw that ball, I saw the replay..Ash was out, no doubt. He was just catching a 'Taki' fish there..he wasnt playing cricket. I think this was not Rauf's fault (he may have faults in some other decisions)

[imran78]

it looked plumb in front to me. he was on the back foot right in front of the middle stump. the ball was turning a lot, thats true, but i thought it was a good decision.
bottom line, it was ashrafuls fault that he got out..not the umpires.

and the argument against tv replays for lbws is that its gonna really slow the game down. sometimes we see 3-4 lbw appeals in one over. and every time they are referred to the 3rd umpired each will take 4-5 more minutes more to adjudge. it will slow down an already slow game. its fine as it is.

[cricket_pagol]

Ashraful showed poor technique when he got played that shot, there is no doubt about that. But, the decison of the umpire was not correct in anyway. The ball pitch out of offstump and hit him in front of the legstump. The ball would have easily missed leg stump. I am sorry this is not plumb.

[akabir77]

We shouldn't talk about LBW that much, it can go either way. It depends on What ump thinks at that time.. But thing is whether the ump is doing the same thing and to both teams.

But i think the 3dr ump decision on bashar was awful and that ump should be sacked/fired and smacked on the head. For him our total resistance was gone in the wind. and we r losing the match in such a bad way..

[abherath]

Originally posted by hello_cricket
Since lbw decisions are often controversial, should ICC decide to to refer such decisions to TV/Third umpire? Is this a good idea?

I think the problem here would be the angle of the camera. It is necessary to study the path of the ball and decide if it could have hit the stumps. What the camera shows could be deceptive as the camera 'sees' from a different angle to that of the head umpire's view. (When software is employed to plot the projected path of the ball, that too is guided by the camera.)

The umpire is in the best position to see what is going on but unfortunately his judgement as to whether the ball could have hit the stumps could be wrong. An idea which might sound preposterous but worth considering is a miniature camera an umpire would carry on his person, somewhere close to his eyes, say a sunglass mounted miniature camera ! The pictures could be relayed to the TV umpire and software could plot the projected path of the ball for the TV umpire to decide.

One should remember that what we see on TV on LBWs could be deceptive due to the very acute angle at which the TV camera sees. Of course we could see quite accurately if the ball had hit the bat before hitting the batsman but it is a different story on the path of the ball.

[abherath]

Originally posted by imran78
it looked plumb in front to me. he was on the back foot right in front of the middle stump. the ball was turning a lot, thats true, but i thought it was a good decision.
bottom line, it was ashrafuls fault that he got out..not the umpires.

and the argument against tv replays for lbws is that its gonna really slow the game down. sometimes we see 3-4 lbw appeals in one over. and every time they are referred to the 3rd umpired each will take 4-5 more minutes more to adjudge. it will slow down an already slow game. its fine as it is.

I think you said it ! Thank you very much, sir.

In another post here, I suggested some technology which would sound rather preposterous even to me at times. Too much technology is bad; I think it would finally take away the human nature of the game. It is HUMAN to err and it is a GAME after all ! Both these properties should be maintained to preserve the old spirit of the game. The fact that an umpire could have an error of judgement is something a player should accept before entering the game !

When you travel on the road, you could always have an accident. Just because of that you don't avoid travel. You simply accept that fact, as it is part and parcel of life (though it could mean death too ).

However, umpires should be impartial and there cannot be any excuse for not being this.

One should also remember that some decisions are in his favour and others are not. It happens both ways.

As for Atapattu's dismissal, I don't think the umpire was cheating. It was just an error of judgement. And in the spirit of the game, I as a Sri Lankan would say that he was OUT. I will also say that Bangladesh did not get an UNFAIR advantage, as it is how the game goes

Edited on, September 14, 2005, 4:21 AM GMT, by abherath.

[abherath]

Originally posted by Spitfire_x86
We've got a "bonus" wicket of Atapattu as well.

The 3rd umpire's mistake in the 1st day was really dissapoing though.

Edited on, September 13, 2005, 3:05 PM GMT, by Spitfire_x86.

You have a balanced view. Good to see posts like yours.