ICC Cricket Committee Want Umpire’s Call to Stay: Report

‘Umpire’s Call’ has been one of the big talking points in cricket since DRS was introduced.

Virar Kohli speaking with the umpire during the T20I series against England.

Image: BCCI

The ICC’s Cricket Committee is all set to stick with the Umpire’s Call rule in the Decision Review System and say that ball-tracking technology was not going to be 100 percent.

The recommendation will discussed at the ICC’s chief executive committee meeting in the upcoming week, ESPNcricinfo reported.

The report also said that, the committee, headed by former India captain Anil Kumble, took suggestions from other match officials, broadcasters, and Hawk-Eye, the ball-tracking technology supplier on the matter.

The committee also has the likes of Andrew Strauss, Rahul Dravid, Mahela Jayawardene, Shaun Pollock - as well as match referee Ranjan Madugalle, umpire Richard Illingworth and Mickey Arthur, among its members.

The committee, after some debate, decided that the 'Umpire's call' rule should stay because of the aforementioned reason.

'Umpire's Call' has been one of the big talking points in cricket since the DRS was introduced and many former players have urged the ICC to do away with this.

However, earlier this month, umpire Nitin Menon highlighted why this needs to be stuck with. "See, first of all, Umpire's Call is regarding decisions which are very close, the decisions which are 50-50, which can go either way, goes with the call of the on-field umpire. It is not a completely perfect decision that has been overturned, so it is a 50-50 decision which can go either way, to the batting side or the fielding side. When we know that technology is not itself 100 per cent correct, so that is when you need the Umpire's Call," Menon had told ANI.

"When we know technology is not 100 per cent correct, so whatever the on-field decision is given, since it is a very marginal call, so we will stick with the decision the on-field umpire has given. This concept needs to be understood by the general public because they are not aware of why Umpire's Call concept is there in DRS. It is basically because it was a marginal call and 100 per cent technology cannot say whether it was hitting the stumps or not," he had added.

India skipper Virat Kohli recently said that the Umpire's Call is creating a lot of confusion at the moment and the lawmakers need to look at it so that it does not leave a grey area when a big tournament is being played.

“According to me, umpire’s call right now is creating a lot of confusion. When you get bowled as a batsman, you don’t expect the ball to hit more than 50 per cent into the stumps to consider yourself bowled.

“So from basic cricket common-sense, I don’t think that there should be any debate on that. If the ball is clipping the stumps, that should be out whether you like it or not, you lose the review.”