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Sight Screen

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

More technology, American style?

Peter Roebuck states the need for introducing more technology after Lara received three roughies' in four innings. Allowing a captain to challenge two umpiring decisions, as in American football, is (in his opinion) a good compromise between the purists and the pro-technology sides. There is a lot of merit in his argument but for that, technology such as HawkEye should be proven to be reliable. At present, it does seem like a lot of ex-cricketers consider HawkEye as a product under development (the actual engineers do say that there have been no errors ever on any of the decisions that HawkEye has delivered). And unlike what happened during the Super Series, replaying the same images and drawing no conclusion is not the right way to include more technology.

posted by Toney at 5:12 PM

20 Comments:

  • Double Post?

    By Blogger Amit, at 17:35  

  • Now it is gone ... am i dreaming?

    By Blogger Amit, at 17:36  

  • @mit, u dreaming? LOL

    By Blogger Toney, at 17:39  

  • just kidding, I dont know howit happened either. And then I go remove it, hoping that both arent deleted :)

    By Blogger Toney, at 17:39  

  • suraj,
    I think most umpires do say what they feel about a decision. For eg, they show that the ball is going down etc.

    By Blogger Toney, at 17:48  

  • going down = legside, I meant

    By Blogger Toney, at 17:48  

  • Hawk Eye is not 100% accurate...during the Ashes one ball from Shane warne spun from the rough so much that Hawk Eye couldn't predict if the ball would end up hitting the stumps or not. Its good for showing whether the ball pitched in line of the stumps but beyond that you can't say for certain.

    By Blogger ClannZú, at 18:15  

  • Still, do you wonder why in Australia only the best batsman of visiting team gets most of these ugly decisions?

    By Blogger LinkLover, at 18:20  

  • Do umpires undergo any written test, to validate their understanding of rules of game ?
    Can anybody please throw some light what is the criteria for an umpire to become International Umpire..
    All I was aware was he had to officate in X number of First Class game, but not sure if this is the sole creteria...
    For me personaly, I think giving the correct decision is more important then saying umpire as Coat Hanger etc, If the usage of Tech can assist the decisions then why not. Yes there is nothing that is perfect, but the judgement should be assisted by best possible means, either Tech, or Challenging(then tech) .. I dont care..
    Most of the players would also prefer the near right decision then instantenous decisions IMHO.

    By Blogger Pankaj Tripathi, at 18:31  

  • Prem,

    I think the idea of challenge is good. There are certain things about challenges in American football that make sense, even when applied to cricket:

    1. You have a limited number of challenges
    2. There is a penalty (loss of one time out) if your challenge is not upheld
    3. Most importantly, the umpire has to make a decision first, and the replays should *conclusively* prove that the decision was wrong. If there is no conclusive evidence that the decision was wrong, then the umpire's decision stands.

    With these three basic guiding principles, we can start using technology.

    The downside is that there will be a stoppage in an already "slow" game. The only way to keep the in-stadium crowd interested is by showing the replays on the giant screens, which not all stadiums have. Of course, the TV crowd will see the replays, so it should not be a big deal to keep them interested.

    The other downside, like you mentioned about a lot of past cricketers' views, is that the technology may not have a lot of backing. But considering that the hawkeye equivalent is being used in tennis (World Team Tennis) already, officially, we can at least hope that the same technology applied to cricket should be good enough to start with.

    Also, if there is a problem with the technology, it applies equally to both teams, doesn't it? So there is no realy advantage to one team vs the other. In fact, if a call is debatable, it better be judged by an impartial, less mistake-prone machine than a human being.

    My 2 paise.

    By Blogger RPM, at 19:31  

  • ClannZú said...
    Hawk Eye is not 100% accurate...during the Ashes one ball from Shane warne spun from the rough so much that Hawk Eye couldn't predict if the ball would end up hitting the stumps or not. Its good for showing whether the ball pitched in line of the stumps but beyond that you can't say for certain.



    Clannzu, HawkEye couldnt predict it and then, what happened? I dont remember this, hence the Q. Did HawkEye give a wrong result or did it just say that it cannot predict? If it is the latter, I am fine with it. All the engineers say is that, whenever the HawkEye comes up with a definite answer, that is always correct

    By Blogger Toney, at 20:30  

  • Sight Screen Blog Team :
    any comments on this
    http://newindpress.com/sports/cricket/india-sa2005/News.asp?Topic=388&Title=Reports&ID=IES20051122114444&nDate=&Sub=&Cat=&

    TNCA rip off the fans by refusing refunds ....

    By Blogger Unsui, at 00:52  

  • http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-1304934,curpg-2.cms

    Read the last line on page 2!! Dada bowled 1st ball by some young rookie!!
    It's another thing this this bit of news might be untrue

    By Blogger Ridham, at 01:13  

  • toney - If I remeber correctly...Hawk-Eye refused to register the ball because according to its parameters a ball couldn't spin so much. The engineers then had to reset the parameters...so basically Hawk-Eye was unavailable for about 20 minutes during the match. And hence Channel 4 couldn't do their Analyst segment with Simon Hughes because of that.

    By Blogger ClannZú, at 01:15  

  • southie - you clearly live in another world... in fact the ganguly divide and rule days are over. From now onwards it is perform or out. don't try and demean GC,RD and More for finally doing something right. I think More & Co have balls of steel to not make SG captain , now lets see if they also drop him. it will do indian cricket a world of good.

    By Blogger RandomThoughts, at 02:09  

  • mm, well said

    By Blogger Gaurav, at 02:35  

  • also MKs temperament while batting is excellent - that makes up for his relatively limited talent

    By Blogger Gaurav, at 02:45  

  • ravi, absolutely. btw kaif is 24 now.

    By Blogger Gaurav, at 02:47  

  • galli,
    why u so disappointed ? i want england to fight hard here. we dont want pak too confident when we take them on in jan

    By Blogger Gaurav, at 02:49  

  • any idea what time the team is gonna be announed ?

    By Blogger Gaurav, at 02:52  

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