Should Technology Be Used In Cricket?

The ball pitches in line, wraps on the pad, massive appeal to the umpire for a leg before decision, turned down. The bowler, the keeper, the slip cordon & the close in fielders are all perplexed at this decision. How could the umpire falter on this one, argue the commentators. Replays flash from all angles and are very predictive that the batsman was plumb in front!



Haven’t we all seen this situation very frequently? This issue has been discussed over and over again by cricket experts and solutions are sought but, nothing much has changed. Why is ICC so averse on using technology to assist umpires make the correct judgment? This will be of huge benefit to a lot of cricketers, and the players in the dressing room will be spared from watching their unfortunate team mate who was dismissed by a bad decision, throw his cricket equipments in the dressing room in total despair.


One has to feel bad for the umpires though. They, for sure would be trying their best to make the correct judgment and occasionally it happens that they make a wrong decision and see the whole world teaching them lessons on umpiring. This really can be a tough job at times.


Let’s analyze how technology can be used appropriately so that all the involved parties are comfortable with this.


Technology, for the first time was introduced for deciding run outs. Given the speed at which the run outs take place, this came as a sigh of relief to the umpires. The third umpire got introduced & he decided on the run outs after watching a series of slowed down replays on TV.


Technology these days is also used by umpires in those situations where they could not get a clear view of a completed catch. In this case, the third umpire is consulted & he makes the decision for the ground umpires. But, besides this, we haven’t seen technology being used in many other situations. The hawk-eye and the stump microphones keep doing their job for the commentators & the TV audiences. Another interesting technology used in Australia was the still X-Ray image. This is used to see whether the ball has made an impact on the bat before being caught. This image leaves a white impression on that part of the bat (the bat is made dark) where the ball has made contact. This black & white X-ray will surely be one of the most used technologies instead of the stump microphone in the future. The ICC unfortunately doesn’t permit the umpires to use these technologies even though these technologies seem very accurate.


The question is: what is the reason? Why doesn’t the ICC make use of these technologies?


The reasoning that ICC could make is, the umpires are skilled enough to make these decisions and using all the available technologies would make an umpire a puppet on the field. So what are the alternatives? According to me, these technologies can be used but in a limited manner. Consider this: The teams are given 3 opportunities during the tenure of the game to oppose an umpire’s decision and propose to refer the matter to the third umpire. The third umpire will make use of technology and base his decision on the available facts.


To put this in more detail, let’s take an example. Suppose side A is batting first and one of its batsmen gets an unfavorable decision. The captain from the dressing room can signal that the technology be used in this case to make the correct decision. Since the technology has now been used once on behest of the batting captain, he is left with 2 chances now to object an umpire’s decision. He can use this while his team fields as well. In case a close leg before or a caught behind is turned down, he can ask the ground umpire to refer the case to the third umpire. The same applies to side B as well.


If such a provision is made available by the ICC, it will benefit the entire cricket fraternity. The umpires can go with their jobs as usual and the captains won’t have to rue the bad decisions that have been made against them.

For sure technology needs to be used. It can be tried out in domestic cricket before being floated at the international level.