Hashim Amla was out before he had scored on the opening day of the first Test.
Facing just his sixth ball he found himself trapped in his crease by a gorgeous Pattinson delivery that struck his back pad. Amla should have been given out because the ball would have struck the top of the stumps.
Michael Clarke didn’t review the decision but even if he had the technology used to confirm Amla was out, the Umpire Decision Review System (DRS), would have been used to confirm he wasn’t.
How ridiculous it is that a piece of technology that has removed doubt over LBW decisions, and can prove that an umpire’s benefit of doubt decision is incorrect, can then be used to support that decision.
Although the DRS was introduced to ensure more certainty with LBW decisions, the ICC chose on October 29th to “increase the margin of uncertainty” so that no less than half the ball (previously it was any part of the ball) has to be in line with the stumps at the time of impact with the pads for a batsman to be given out. Consequently Alviro Petersen survived an inswinging yorker into his foot that would have been adjudged LBW eleven days earlier.
The LBW has been the most contentious of dismissal modes – let us forget Timed Out, Obstructing the Field,Handling the Ball and Hit Ball Twice – since it was introduced to discourage batsmen protecting the stumps with their pads.
This is because it is difficult to know for certain that a decision is correct. There are many variables, and a lack of proof.
Factors to be considered by the umpire in real-time, and in the moment (ie deliveries reaching 150 km/h, crowd noise, birds chirping, sun reflecting, wing blowing) include: was it a no ball, did the batsman hit the ball, where did the ball pitch, did it hit the batsman in line, and would it have hit the stumps?
The DRS is said to ‘assist’ or ‘protect’ umpires in their decisions. Rather, it is a humiliating test of their decision-making abilities. Faced with the prospect of being found out by slow motion replays and Hawkeye they now appear petrified of making any decisions; opting instead for the batsman benefit of the doubt ‘not out’ non-decision.
The shrinking violet Billy Bowden only raised his crooked stamen to Graeme Smith’s plumb LBW when the DRS forced him to do so.
The aim of technology is to ensure decisions are correct, not to protect the sensitivities of umpires.
It’s time to relieve umpires of the onerous responsibility of making LBW decisions and put an end to the absurd situation where technology is used to deny its own findings. Refer all LBW decisions to the DRS.
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