When messenger got shot

Victory in a battle is seldom achieved without collateral damage. The battle of UDRS (Umpire Decision Review System) was no exception. Tragically, it’s the messenger that got shot in the crossfire between the ICC and BCCI.

The ICC decided to make the UDRS optional on Tuesday (11^th Oct), after it was made mandatory in last June. More than anyone’s victory it’s the game of cricket that has lost out. It’s the quest for technological innovation to make the game more accurate that has been unwittingly stalled. Thankfully, the baby hasn’t been thrown with the bath water — the UDRS hasn’t been banned.

The UDRS, officially introduced on 24^th Nov. ’09 during the first Test between New Zealand and Pakistan in Dunedin, is designed to provide a bouquet of technologies, including the Hawk-Eye, Hot Spot and Snickometre, to the third umpire to arrive at a decision. With the use of these technologies, the ICC found the accuracy of umpire’s decision increased from 93 to 97 per cent. Interestingly, Aleem Dar, the ICC umpire of the year, firmly supports the UDRS and believes it should be used uniformly and permanently.

It’s the random use of technology, especially the use of just one technology instead of all the three in a combined form, which is resulting in inaccurate decisions, as was the case in the Ind-Eng series. Further, the BCCI must realize that even though science has discovered that Neutrino, a subatomic particle, travels faster than light, it still hasn’t produced a technology that’s 100 per cent accurate.

In the last Ind-Eng Test series, Hot Spot’s verdict on Rahul Dravid’s dismissal were incorrect on three occasions. During the same time, the Hawk-Eye gave a wrong trajectory of the ball in case of Phil Hughes’s dismissal in the Galle Test between Sri Lanka and Australia. What followed thereafter was almost a vicious attack on the UDRS by an army of commentators and administrators. As it often happens, the blinding wave of criticism missed a crucial point. The Ind-Eng Test series was not using the UDRS in its entirety. The Indian board had already rejected the use of Hawk-Eye. It was only the Hot Spot technology which was being used in the series even though Snickometre was also available. But strangely enough, the board was expecting the Hot Spot to provide the level of accuracy which is attained only by the simultaneous use of Hawk-Eye, Hot Spot and Snickometre. If the board uses the UDRS half-heartedly then it should be willing to accept half-baked results. It’s unfair to blame the UDRS when it is not used in its entirety.

The BCCI must also realize that the UDRS incorporates three emerging technologies, which are still evolving and will only getter better. Yet it produces a very high percentage of accuracy when used together. Instead of discrediting each technology one by one, the BCCI must realize that even when the UDRS may be a tad inaccurate but it’s always impartial. Being the richest and most powerful cricket board, the BCCI should join hands with the ICC in this technological journey to make the game richer and more accurate.

Spare the messenger; embrace technology.