ICC has the decision review system in place for the test series being played between Australia and West Indies as well as Pakistan and New Zealand. Review system was also to be used in the India and Sri Lanka series but both teams turned it down. India had their issues with the review system, the last time it was implemented, and therefore they felt it should not be experimented with, in a big series against the Sri Lanka. The system allows each team to make three unsuccessful challenges within a match. Note that a successful challenge (call for a review) does not count which is fair enough since it’s an umpiring mistake. The umpire’s supremacy over the proceedings is ensured by the fact that it is the umpire who has to give the final decision. Also there is this ruling that in case of very close decisions, the on field decision is held supreme.
There are many interesting aspects of this particular system and there must have been a detailed discussion regarding this within the ICC. They must have discussed with the umpiring staff since the umpires are the ones who might have to overturn their decision. It still is a bit humiliating if the umpire makes a wrong decision and then has to overturn it. However, it saves the umpire from the guilt of giving someone out wrongly. So I would guess umpires wouldn’t have a problem with it. In fact I believe if I would have been an umpire I would have wanted more use of technology especially in case of LBW decisions. However the critics of technology do have a point. It takes away the human angle from the game.
Another aspect to consider is from the batsman’s point of view. I believe the system helps the batsmen the most since they are the ones who know if they have been given out wrongly. There are generally two modes of dismissals that they umpires find difficult to judge – the LBW and the bat-pad catch. In both the cases the batsmen are in a better position to tell whether it’s out or not as compared to the umpire. So if they have the review appeal available to them, it does give them to overturn a decision wrongly made by the umpires. Even in the case of LBW, generally the batsman knows 80% of the time if he is in front and also has a fair idea of the height of the delivery. Ideally a batsman calling for a review should be right 95% of the time. One does feel that if reviews are available at the end of the innings, these might be called in case of LBW decisions just to take a chance. But with only 3 unsuccessful challenges available, this can’t happen for every decision.
The third aspect to consider is from a bowler’s point of view. Generally bowlers are optimistic about LBWs and Bat-Pads and this optimism can lead to wasting the review challenge. Generally I believe bowlers would lose more challenges than batsmen. Again they might be careful in the early stages of a match but if reviews are available, they are more likely to be taken towards the end of the match and this is something that makes the end more interesting.
Tags: DRS, icc decision review system, icc rules, test cricket decison review system, umpires decision review system, umpires decisions
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