It’s 4.30pm in Colombo, Sri Lanka on July 24 2008. India are taking on Sri Lanka in the first of three Tests. Cricket history has just been made.
After beating Tilakaratne Dilshan’s outside edge with a full ball outside off stump, Zaheer Khan and the rest of the Indians go up in appeal.
After a moment’s deliberation umpire Mark Benson raises his finger. But this is the first Test match to use the new referral system, and Dilshan is adamant that he didn’t hit it. He makes a “T” signal with his hands to contest the decision. The appeal is sent upstairs to the third umpire, and sure enough Dilshan is right.
Replays show that the Sri Lankan batsman hit the ground and not the ball, and he is free to continue his innings. Thus Dilshan becomes the first player in Test cricket to have a decision overturned.
Sri Lanka declare on 6/600 the following day and with Dilshan still there on 125, and two days later Sri Lanka have won the match by an innings.
If Paul Collingwood had been watching this he would probably have asked himself why England rejected the chance to use this new referral system in the series against South Africa.
If he could have challenged the Umpires decision at Lord’s he may still have his place in the Test side.
Under the system teams are allowed three unsuccessful appeals per innings. But the opinion is mixed as some umpires have questioned the reliability of the technology. Billy Bowden believe that the men in white always know best: “Umpires have been around cricket longer than Hawk-Eye has existed. I would back any umpire to make more accurate lbw decisions than Hawk-Eye. The umpire will always be in the best position to adjudicate on lbws.”
However, ICC’s General manager insists most umpires back the new experiment, and are united in their determination to eradicate wrong decisions. “A lot of people will say reviews are contradictory to the spirit of the game and that players are challenging the umpires, but the way we look at it is- what is better or worse for the game? Umpires make mistakes and are accused of cheating, Steve Bucknor’s effigies are being burnt, teams threaten to fly home, boards criticise umpires. Should we have a system where the umpire is given an opportunity to review his own decision and make a final decision himself?”
And whilst critics and traditionalists will continue to question the potential for undermining the authority of umpires – at least until the process is either set in stone or discarded – you can bet Tilakaratne Dilshan won’t be one of them!
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