The recent Test series against India gave us all cause to revisit the assumption that technology is a necessary part of modern sporting adjudication.
Let’s forget, for a moment, that India’s refusal to use the DRS is a ridiculous and arrogant use of their power in the game, and focus more on the outcome: four games of cricket without a review system, some bad calls, a lot of great calls, and we all just got on with our lives.
I’ve long argued that the pervasion of video referees and third umpires into our most loved sports has taken away more than it has given.
The great promise of technology was simple: to get rid of the ‘howler’. Now, it is patently clear that the howler is still well and truly a part of most sports, and that technology has done little to eradicate this. Supporters of technology’s use will opine that if it’s available, we should use it, but I’m not sure that holds water any more.
Video technology has created a beast, and that beast is us. Fans now have an expectation of perfection, an expectation that every decision should be correct, which is simply impossible with or without 13 super-slow motion replays. This expectation leads to days of handwringing in the media, an almost monotonous weekly outcry about how we “can’t believe they stuffed it up again!”
Television replays have contributed to this, as we now all have the best seat in the house to judge how well the officials have performed. If an on-field referee made a call in the heat of the moment, and we could see that it was wrong, we would swear, we would kick the cat and throw the remote, but that we would get over it. We could understand it. The Test series showed this to be the case.
That understanding doesn’t exist in some modern sports. We whinge and moan for weeks, because we were looking at the same replay as the referee, and they still couldn’t see what I could see!
Well this whinging has worn me down. We analyse these decisions to death, we come up with new systems to make sure it doesn’t happen again, and we go through the same routine the next week. It’s not solving the problem. It’s not even helping at all.
I am not naïve enough to think that we could ever go back to the way things were. And even I can acknowledge that there are aspects of some sports that are perfectly suited to a black-and-white, yes-or-no decision that technology can help with.
But that doesn’t mean I can’t pine for a better time.
A time when the greatest moments of the greatest games weren’t destroyed by countless replays. A time when you could jump to your feet to celebrate a try without wondering if someone in the box would stuff it up. A time when I would kick the cat, throw the remote, then get on with the game.
Build your own fantasy cricket team and put it to the test with Draftstars daily fantasy competitions. Pick your match, pick your team and watch the points roll in to take out cash prizes on each match. What are you really gambling with? Set a deposit limit.
With Rajasthan needing 25 off 17, both batsmen ended up at the same end but the bowler dropped the throw from his teammate -…
A six-laden, 27-ball 84 from Jake Fraser-McGurk to continue his outrageous debut IPL!
Johnny Bairstow has hit his way back into form with a 45-ball century as he steered his side to a record-breaking win, easily chasing…
It seems franchise cricket has forgotten about the great battle between bat and ball. In fact, this season in the IPL there is no battle at all.
The mammoth rise of Jake Fraser-McGurk - his enormous potential and the destructive shot-making that he possesses makes him a very tempting option.
Xavier Bartlett has been permission to extend his cricketing education with a spell of T20s in England, playing in the Blast competition for Kent…
