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The single biggest travesty of logic in cricket right now is shunning the use of technology and the Decision Review System because it’s ‘not 100 percent accurate’.
Comparing the evaluative powers of a 50 to 60-year-old male human watching a ball at 150 kilometres per hour to that same man watching super slow motion cameras that record 1000 frames per second is a pure absurdity.
When you’re talking of ‘not 100 percent accurate’, you should be looking squarely at Richard Kettleborough, Aleem Dar and even our own Rod Tucker.
I’ll concede, South Africa’s continuing selection of Imran Tahir or the decision-making that goes behind choosing yet another 22-year-old to captain Bangladesh are both cringe-worthy for the logically inclined, but the technology argument takes the cake.
Then it takes all the other cakes, not to mention the friands, brownies and muffins.
This is not to slag the umpires. Let’s be very clear – there is a very different expectation placed upon umpires who see everything once, in eye-definition, at full speed.
Technology projects it for the same or similar person at high-definition, multiple times, at whatever speed the viewer should choose.
Plus you get Snicko, bird-of-prey-eye, ultra slow-mo replays and, if your network can afford it, Hot Spot, to help you along the way.
But technology is still ‘not 100 percent accurate’, even with all them fancy gadgets. I’ll concede that.
Here’s where things get interesting.
The question here is not about accuracy. It is about the purpose of using technology to get decisions right.
Is it to make sure that everything is clear and accounted for? Or is it to help humans make decisions about what was most likely the case?
Umpires have been taking probabilities into account since well before WG Grace was leaning on his bat and telling them to holster their index finger.
There has been high a level of adjudication since the first cricket ball was bowled in anger.
Here’s a sample case: Ball bowled, batsman slashes outside off stump.
A woody sort of noise issues from the region of where bat may have hit ball.
No pad, head or crotch anywhere near incident. Keeper catches. Slips go up.
Umpire raises finger.
Was there a clear edge? No. Just a noise, and it couldn’t have been anything else, unless a nearby swallow was taking to a rather tough macadamia shell.
So the umpire decides, in all probability, that it’s out. He’s 99 percent sure, so he gives it.
It’s the way it’s been done forever. Umpires decide on what probably happened and make a decision accordingly.
Why did it all change when technology came along? Why is there an impossible burden of 100 percent accuracy placed upon technology that is not placed upon umpires.
If Hot Spot shows a clear edge, then it is only further confirmation of the strong likelihood of ball brushing edge.
If there’s a noise on Snicko, or if there’s a clear deviation on replay, then it’s just further confirmation.
Will any of these tools ever offer 100 percent conclusive proof in all cases? Absolutely not.
If people actually hold that they will shun technology that is ‘not 100 percent accurate’ then we will never, ever see technology assist umpires. Ever.
It’s simply not possible, and the expectation placed on technology is an absurdity.
The leap in logic from man to machine is as inexplicable as Glenn Maxwell’s self-confidence.
Our expectation should not be for 100 percent accuracy, but instead should be based around a desire to see a fair and as-accurate-as-possible process.
If you deny that the current technology available can assist a man watching a cricket ball at full speed, while also checking for no-balls, then there’s something a little awry upstairs.
I agree that it’s ‘not 100 percent accurate’, but I’d sure as hell trust a carabiner and harness to hold me from falling off a mountain over an outstretched human hand.
Didn’t anybody watch Cliffhanger?
Twitter: @PatrickEffeney
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