Captains: Use umpiring technology

LONDON, England: Australian captain Ricky Ponting and Zimbabwe captain Tatenda Taibu are the only two international cricket captains that have disagreed with the principle of more technology for umpires, according to a survey conducted by world cricket’s governing body. The International Cricket Council has revealed that most international captains have backed the ICC’s experimental use of technology to assist better umpire decision-making.

“Of the 10 captains who took part in the survey, only Ponting’s view is consistent with a long-standing Australian approach to the subject, while Taibu, Test cricket’s youngest-ever captain, believes that ‘what’s already there is enough’,” an ICC news release said. During next month’s ICC Champions Trophy limited-overs series in Britain, the search for improved decision-making will see standing umpires wired-up to TV stump microphone technology, and third umpires calling no balls. England’s Michael Vaughan is one of the captains in favour of more assistance for standing umpires and disagrees that they should be the sole judges of all appeals. “But I have reservations about the use of certain types of technology,” he said.

“I am not convinced, for example, that Hawkeye is always 100 per cent right on lbw decisions because the umpire in the middle is still the person who is best placed to judge how the pitch is behaving and what the ball is doing.” Others in support are Stephen Fleming of New Zealand, Graeme Smith of South Africa, Marvan Atapattu of Sri Lanka, Habibul Bashar of Bangladesh, Steve Tikolo of Kenya, Inzamam-ul-Haq of Pakistan, and Richard Staple of the United States. ICC general manager, David Richardson, the former South Africa wicketkeeper/batsman, confirmed the success of the current no-ball trial at the three-nation tournament in Holland.

“Although we have been limited by poor weather, the initial feedback to this trial is that standing umpires are very comfortable with it and have adapted quickly to the change of not looking for no balls,” he said. “In practice it is more demanding for the third umpire, who has to look at every delivery bowled. Where no balls have been called in Holland there has been minimal delay between the standing umpire receiving the call from the third umpire and making his signal.” The ICC has previously confirmed that umpires standing in seven of the 15 ICC Champions Trophy matches will wear an earpiece that picks up the audio from the stump microphone as the ball passes the batsman. The trial will indicate whether the microphone’s position close to the action area will provide audible assistance to officials in cases that are sometimes difficult to pick up, such as thin nicks to the keeper or bat-pad fielders.