The league phase of this tournament is not yet over and we have seen sixes flying, some stunning catches being taken and some simple ones being spilled (yes, you know whom I'm talking about), excellent displays of batting and bowling, a tied match, upsets, huge run chases, a TV being broken, and yes, of course, umpires messing up decisions tanks to new fangled technology, which has only, as Dhoni says, "adulterated human decision making".
What the decision review systems have brought with it is more confusion. Reminds me of Michael Crichton's words "A complex system will always a lot of problems". A complex game such as Cricket has N number of problems. Rules are written in a language which border heavily on the lines of ambiguity. Sometimes, I'm sure even the greatest lawyers, judges and pundits of the game must have been confused by some rules.
There have been quite a few umpiring errors in recent times, that too with the use of such advanced technology. The worldcup may lack the cutting edge of the hotspot or the assistance of the snicko, but certainly, it has the hawkeye to make some of the LBW decisions easy for the umpire. All that the umpire has to do is to ask the third umpire at the behest of the player who questions the decision. Despite technology which can show out and not out clearly, there are some utterly stupid umpiring errors made.
Technology has been introduced into a game as lengthy as cricket, which once Hitler commented when watching a test match "I could've conquered another country in 5 days", to make sure that correct decisions are reached. Of late, there have been ghastly errors which show reputed umpires in poor light. Why do such errors occur?
1. Umpires these days rely far too much on technology. All the parameters for an LBW decision are shown on a big screen alongwith the reply, but the technology still cannot judge the amount of turn or bounce that the pitch provides at that point of time. The umpires would love to see hawkeye telling them that also, so that decisions can be made properly. What do you guys have a brain with immense cricketing knowledge and experience for?
2. Rules, rules and more rules, which are made ambiguous by each letter.
I could think of only 2, and there could be many more.
Gone are the days when good umpiring decisions were made solely by the two on field umpires. Maybe, with the advent of such technology, umpires could be done away with in the future. Lets just hope that we don't find that happening really soon. Cricket would never be the same if not for umpires like Billy Bowden, and Simon Taufel. Humans can make errors, even utterly stupid ones, on their own that is, but the game will live on. When technology interferes with plain and simple human decision making, it not only makes some highly respected umpires look foolish, it also causes a lot more confusion and sometimes even controversy when the decision making is thrown back to the on field umpire.
The game can only improve by either standardizing the UDRS components. Either make it all (hotspot, hawkeye and snicko) or nothing at all. An already complex game doesn't need a further complexity in terms of absurdly wrong decisions made even with the help of technology.
What the decision review systems have brought with it is more confusion. Reminds me of Michael Crichton's words "A complex system will always a lot of problems". A complex game such as Cricket has N number of problems. Rules are written in a language which border heavily on the lines of ambiguity. Sometimes, I'm sure even the greatest lawyers, judges and pundits of the game must have been confused by some rules.
There have been quite a few umpiring errors in recent times, that too with the use of such advanced technology. The worldcup may lack the cutting edge of the hotspot or the assistance of the snicko, but certainly, it has the hawkeye to make some of the LBW decisions easy for the umpire. All that the umpire has to do is to ask the third umpire at the behest of the player who questions the decision. Despite technology which can show out and not out clearly, there are some utterly stupid umpiring errors made.
Technology has been introduced into a game as lengthy as cricket, which once Hitler commented when watching a test match "I could've conquered another country in 5 days", to make sure that correct decisions are reached. Of late, there have been ghastly errors which show reputed umpires in poor light. Why do such errors occur?
1. Umpires these days rely far too much on technology. All the parameters for an LBW decision are shown on a big screen alongwith the reply, but the technology still cannot judge the amount of turn or bounce that the pitch provides at that point of time. The umpires would love to see hawkeye telling them that also, so that decisions can be made properly. What do you guys have a brain with immense cricketing knowledge and experience for?
2. Rules, rules and more rules, which are made ambiguous by each letter.
I could think of only 2, and there could be many more.
Gone are the days when good umpiring decisions were made solely by the two on field umpires. Maybe, with the advent of such technology, umpires could be done away with in the future. Lets just hope that we don't find that happening really soon. Cricket would never be the same if not for umpires like Billy Bowden, and Simon Taufel. Humans can make errors, even utterly stupid ones, on their own that is, but the game will live on. When technology interferes with plain and simple human decision making, it not only makes some highly respected umpires look foolish, it also causes a lot more confusion and sometimes even controversy when the decision making is thrown back to the on field umpire.
The game can only improve by either standardizing the UDRS components. Either make it all (hotspot, hawkeye and snicko) or nothing at all. An already complex game doesn't need a further complexity in terms of absurdly wrong decisions made even with the help of technology.
If a batsman/bowler/fielder can make mistakes, why cant the umpire ? Scrap the UDRS i say :)
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