Cricket umpires and captains support review system

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Umpires and captains generally support the Umpire Decision Review System (UDRS) used in three countries during the southern hemisphere summer, according to International Cricket Council (ICC) general manager Dave Richardson.

"At this point in time the general consensus seems to be it works, it gets more decisions right, it is resulting in more correct decisions," Richardson told Reuters in a telephone interview from the ICC's Dubai headquarters.

The ICC has promised an investigation into the referral system after England complained about the performance of third umpire Darryl Harper in the fourth test against South Africa.

Harper was the official in charge of ruling on appeals from either side against the decisions of the on-field umpires.

"We are better off with the old system," said England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) chairman Giles Clarke. "If the umpire is as deaf as a post and as blind as a bat at least it's the same for both sides."

Richardson said the ICC had studied television footage from the four tests in South Africa, six in Australia and three in New Zealand where the UDRS had been used.

"The bottom line is that in all the series we have used it, 13 test matches overall, is we hadn't used UDRS we would have talked about umpires getting about 91 percent of their decisions right," he said.

"But we have been able to correct the number of those mistakes so the overall number now is 97 percent. So that to us is a significant improvement. From that fact alone it would be silly to throw the baby out with the bath water just because things go wrong occasionally."

Richardson said the ICC was "completely happy" with the ball tracking systems in the three series, used to help the third umpire determine if an lbw decision was correct.

"I can confirm that Hawk-Eye has been particularly good. In fact the Hawk-Eye and Virtual Eye and the protocols that go with it have worked superbly well, they have been one of the biggest contributors to the fact that we've got so many more decisions correct," he said.

Technology problems
The former South African wicketkeeper said there were still problems with technology such as hot spot, which uses infra-red cameras to see if a ball has brushed the bat or glove.

"We have seen so many examples even in the test matches this summer where there's no mark from hot spot, the ball didn't seem to deflect in any way but there's a noise and you wonder was that hitting the bat or did the handle keep clicking," he said.

Overall, though, Richardson said umpires and captains approved the principle of the UDRS.

"You get some umpires who are a little bit insecure, slowly but surely technology is taking over their job. Hopefully, they will realise this is doing something to preserve their job, letting them check on it if they think or someone thinks a mistake has been made," he said.

"There are others who support it and think this takes the pressure off them because they feel they can make their decision now and the consequences are not going to be series-changing or career-threatening for players.

"And there are probably some of them who think they are good enough, they don't need technology in the first place. It's a bit of a variety but I still maintain the majority are in favour of the way we are going.

"I think the same thing can be said about the captains. The general feeling is, though, we definitely need to work to refine the specifications as the technology gets better and better."