The time has now come for the ICC to stand up to the Indian cricket board and say: ‘Enough is enough. We are using the decision review system in all Test matches.’
This series has provided all the proof needed that the game is categorically better off using technology rather than relying totally on the men in the middle.
Controversy: England captain Alastair Cook was given out caught despite the ball traveling well wide of his batSurely the world game’s governing body can now go to India and say, ‘we have listened to your reservations and we respect them, but just look at what has happened in a marquee series when technology hasn’t been used. Big mistakes have been made on both sides and your players have misbehaved because of it’.
All the boards bar India now seem to want the system in place. Spectators want it and, judging by his reaction to a decision yesterday, India captain MS Dhoni wants it.
And sitting in the Indian dressing room is the man who invented DRS, their coach Duncan Fletcher. What more do they need?
Nobody is saying the technology used is perfect. But the very professional people behind it are working towards making it as near perfect as it can be. And if it had been used in these four Tests, I reckon there might have been one or two errors made with important decisions. Instead, there have been 10 or 12.
I was asked by Sky to come up with the blatant umpiring errors in this series, and I quickly picked out 10 that really should have been spotted by the naked eye by elite umpires. I’m sure there have been other mistakes too.
10 UMPIRING HOWLERS THIS SERIESBatsman / Bowler - What happened...Test: Ahmedabad (1st Test)
Samit Patel / Ravi Ashwin - Should have been given out lbw on four
Mumbai (2nd)
Zaheer Khan / Graeme Swann - Given out caught at short leg — nowhere near it
Mumbai (2nd)
Pragyan Ojha / Monty Panesar - Obvious glove to leg slip — missed by Aleem Dar
Mumbai (2nd)
Gautam Gambhir / Graeme Swann - Out lbw after edging the ball into his pads
Kolkata (3rd)
Alastair Cook / Ravi Ashwin - Caught at short leg, not noticed by umpire
Kolkata (3rd)
Monty Panesar / Ravi Ashwin - lbw after nicking it
Nagpur (4th)
Alastair Cook / Ishant Sharma - lbw, despite being hit outside line of off
Nagpur (4th)
Cheteshwar Pujara / Graeme Swann - Given out at short leg off the forearm
Nagpur (4th)
Alastair Cook / Ravi Ashwin - Caught behind, but didn’t hit it
Nagpur (4th)
Jonathan Trott / Ravindra Jadeja - Hit in line with the stumps, survived the lbw shout
I am just not sure it is right when people say the elite panel get 90 per cent of their decisions right. It certainly hasn’t been that way in this series.
The four umpires used in these games seem to have become uncertain once they have had their safety net taken away from them. They have seen from technology that more decisions are out than was perceived in the past and, without it, they are not sure what to give and what to turn down.
The genie is out of the bottle. The modern generation can’t understand why technology isn’t being used. It’s time for India to see the error of their ways and accept the views of the vast majority. We have seen with our own eyes that it is the only way forward now.
Commanding: Despite his unfair dismissal, Alastair Cook's (pictured) England team remain on course for an historic series win
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