Whose Call is it?

Is human error to be accepted as an integral part of the game or should wide balls and full tosses be reviewed?

Should captains have the right to review key wide ball calls and waist high full toss calls? Will that slow down the game and make the onfield umpire less relevant? Is human error an integral part of the game and should we continue to empower umpires to take such calls? If technology is available and is being used for the front foot no ball why should the video umpire not weigh in on wide balls, which might well influence the outcome of a game?

Virat Kohli on a Puma India Instagram show has let the cat out of the bag. Referring to the CSK versus Sunrisers game where umpire Paul Reifel ( pictured left) was about to call a wide but refrained from doing so seeing MS Dhoni vent his frustration, Kohli has suggested that captains should now have the right to review such contentious calls. Had Reifel called it a wide and had Rashid got a ball extra, the match could well have panned out differently. And there have been matches which were decided in the very last ball and by the thinnest of margins so Kohli’s point makes absolute sense. If there is technology available why not make use of it and make the game as error free as possible?

David Warner, speaking to me on my show ‘ Inspiration’ weighed in on this debate and said the following, “We have always wanted to keep the human element going in our game. Reifel was about to call it a wide. If you see it was a clear wide. And he got it wrong. He did so because MS Dhoni was in his vision and was seen venting his frustration. And let’snot single out Dhoni. Had it been any other captain he would do the same. All of us express our frustrations at close calls. That’s what prompted Reifel to change his decision. I don’t think there is any blame here and it has to be taken in the spirit of the game.”

With two of the best speaking on the subject, this is certainly a matter of debate. For me personally a call like this is likely to change the outcome of a match and can end up causing a lot of controversy. It is like a goal line save in football and we now have technology to adjudicate on such decisions. We also have VAR to make the game error free. Cricket, which was one of the first to use technology, can’t have it halfway. To have umpires adjudicate on front foot no balls and not for wide balls is perhaps not the best call. It should be all or nothing for that’s how sport is and should be. If it is the other way round it might end up benefitting one team and that’s the last thing one wants to see in a close encounter. I think Virat has a point. While we all want the spirit of the game to be upheld and to Dave Warner’s credit he did so beautifully despite being on the losing side, it has to be said that Warner and his team were unlucky. We don’t want to leave things to chance in sport. And that’s where empowering the video umpire becomes that much more important. A fair result ensures a level playing field and we should do all we can to ensure that.

— The writer is a senior journalist

and scholar based in India

Reifel was about to call it a wide. If you see it was a clear

wide. And he got it wrong. He did so because MS Dhoni was in his vision...

David Warner Captain of Sunrisers Hyderabad