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Agencies
Sydney
Australia’s captain Steven Smith has called for an end to the practice of on-field umpires offering a “soft signal” to the third umpire on disputed catches, arguing that technology should be arbiter in such cases as the immediate reactions of players in the middle have often proven to be flawed, reports espncricnfo.com.
Smith was given out caught behind at a critical juncture of the third ODI in Sydney on Sunday, edging low to Jos Buttler who immediately celebrated the catch. The on-field umpires Chris Gaffaney and Simon Fry then referred the catch to the TV umpire Kumar Dharmasena with the soft signal of “out”, and while replays shrouded the catch in far greater doubt, Dharmasena did not deem it to be enough to overrule the initial impression of his colleagues.
In assessing the process, Smith said he felt that the umpires’ signal was often dictated by the reactions - either celebratory or ambivalent – of players in the middle, and carried too much weight relative to the evidence provided by television cameras. He said he would prefer a system where the third umpire made a ruling based purely on the pictures in front of him.
“I’m not sure I’m a big fan of the ruling with the soft signal. That’s obviously the ruling at the moment and it’s hard to overturn anything,” Smith said. “We’ve seen a few this summer that have been pretty similar and if the fielder goes up and actually celebrates they usually get given out and if you’re a bit apprehensive of what’s happened they normally get given not out.
“It’s hard for them to overturn the decision. I’d actually like for the third umpire to have to make the decision whether it’s out or not. Just them having to do it, if that makes sense.”
The soft signal was introduced for disputed catches in part because it was felt that two dimensional camera images and foreshortening often added doubt to catches that all on the field had considered clean, meaning too many were ruled not out as a matter of course. Simon Taufel, the former ICC umpires training manager, has explained the reason for its existence by stating that umpires needed to retain the primary responsibility for decision-making.
“It’s part of the decision-making process,” he had said earlier in 2016. “If the third umpire cannot find conclusive evidence to prove that the original on-field decision is incorrect, then it stands. On-field umpires are there to make decisions and answer appeals, not simply to send them upstairs to the third umpire to take the call.”
