IT’S BETTER LATE THAN NEVER AS ICC MOVE WITH TIME
In an era where opinion drives the media cycle, old-fashioned good news can run the risk of getting a bit lost. Naturally, the ICC cop their decent share of whacks, many of those perfectly well earned. But they solved a pretty challenging problem this month, and for that they deserve a pat on the back, for at last they have gotten the front foot no-ball nonsense sorted out.
It was a source of frustration that 2016 made worse before it got better when Adam Voges and Alex Hales were clean bowled by no-balls, only for television to quickly show the bowlers’ feet were well behind the line on both occasions.
In the case of the former, the howler occurred when he was on seven before going on to add 232 more. With that Australian series in New Zealand only consisting of two Tests (an issue for another day) the knock-on effects were considerable. When the latter was cleaned up in the second innings at Lord’s in June it was enough to inspire a (modest) protest from the visiting Sri Lankans for they felt so aggrieved at the cock up.
What made both episodes so shambolic was that replays were available before the batsmen were off the field to highlight the palpably wrong decisions. For years debate raged as to why central umpires still had this in their suite of responsibilities at the pace the modern game is played, doubly so with DRS already such a significant part of the simple task of getting less wrong.
When the world Cricket Committee was assembled in mid-year, Geoff Allardice, ICC’s General Manager of Cricket, tells The Cricket Paper the issue had been on the agenda “for a number of years”. But following the high-profile blunders they had to act, enough was enough.
In that forum calls came to reinstate batsmen in Voges/Hales instances. But upon deeper thinking it became obvious this would be a nightmare to govern. “If you have an LBW or a fine edge the umpire isn’t focusing on that as much as he would be otherwise because he has already called no ball,” Allardice explains. “The regulation was going to be too complex to be able to implement easily, so we went back and said how can we go back and call them more accurately in the first place.”
That shift in emphasis - to take a prevention rather than cure approach - required a turn in philosophy also. Namely, an acceptance that batsmen simply aren’t altering their strokes after no-balls anyway. In other words, they would shelve the antiquated notion of the ‘early call’ free hit.
Given the third umpire had many of the tools at his disposal already, as seen when calling back players when no-balls are routinely checked upstairs after wickets, a trial was agreed with that TV official getting the job entirely.
Pakistan’s ODI tour of England followed accordingly, the man in the stands given access to a freeze frame of the front foot landing within two seconds, and the ability to toggle the footage in super slow-motion. In the event of an overstep, a button is pressed to alert the on-field umpire via a vibrating watch, and he unfurls his arm. Et voila.
“The aim of the trial was to call no balls more accurately than the human eye can at the non-strikers end has… trying to address a difficult issue in a way that has minimal impact on the game,” Allardice says of the guiding principles.
He added that the process needed to occur “within what was a reasonable time frame”. While the formal results of the five-game study are yet to be published, Allardice’s preliminary conclusion is that it worked without affecting the game’s natural flow.
What made the episodes so shambolic was that replays were available before the batsmen were off the field to highlight the wrong decisions
“The general assessment from the trial is that the response time for working through the no-balls was reasonably good,” he says. “There was a couple of times where umpires dwelled on a particular no-ball longer than they might like, but in those cases you generally are giving the bowler the benefit of the doubt.”
And in terms of keeping the bowlers behind the line, the modest sample size of five games is encouraging too, only eight overzealous moments captured and called. “If that is a side effect of the technology than that is a positive result,” Allardice observed, noting that it took until well into the second ODI before the umpire’s wrist buzzed.
As with anything new, there will be challenges. The most obvious when the TV umpire’s view from square-on cameras is obscured. In this instance, less conclusive angles will be relied on, which happened “once or twice” by Allardice’s estimation in the trial. But he counters by saying this is still the most effective way, rather than automating the process with tennis-style beams that are challenged by the fact that a crease line rarely remains flat.
The trial brings into sharper focus as well the ever-evolving role of the third official. Long gone are the days when he could put his feet up waiting for a run out referral as it was when the initiative first arrived in the early-to-mid 1990s.
“The amount of information in front of a third umpire now on his screen is a lot greater than it was a few years ago and trying to sift through that information and use the replays effectively,” Allardice says of the more specialised job spec. “They are also going to air during reviews and describing their thought processes as it is going on – that is a skill in itself.”
While all umpires on the elite panel pride themselves on their performance on the TV tools, having to make a quick assessment every ball of the game develops the role yet further. “The idea of a good on-field umpire automatically being a good TV umpire is not necessarily the case,” he adds.
So is it reasonable to assume that specialised third umpires are a natural progression? “It is heading down that path.”
Next comes a formal review of the trial by the Cricket Committee, and if given the green light, on to the Chief Executives and the ICC and the board for final approval. How that shakes out in terms of which formats proceed, whether it will be mandated and when it could begin will be determined by those bodies. But Allardice is confident if the will was there, it shouldn’t take long to implement. “If there is an appetite to roll this out it could be done fairly easily across series,” he says.
Let’s hope so...