Left: Tony Becca. Right: HOLDER
THE INTERNATIONAL Cricket Council (ICC) Cricket Committee's two-day meeting in Dubai ended on Saturday with its 12 members, including Roland Holder of the West Indies, making a number of recommendations which they hope, if accepted, will improve the game.
The recommendations, which must be approved by the ICC's chief executives committee and then ratified by the ICC board during their meetings in July, include changes to the playing conditions for the ICC Champions Trophy, the ICC Cricket World Cup and for Twenty20 matches, new criteria for the measurement of bad light, when play can be halted in 'dead' Test matches, the use of earpieces connected to the stump microphones by umpires in all international matches, and the laws governing what constitutes a cricket bat.
The main recommendation, however, concerned the extended use of technology to assist umpires and in the attempt to ensure that the correct decisions are made not only most of the time but every time, hopefully and despite the arguments against, it will be approved and ratified in July.
After a close six to five vote in favour, the cricket committee has recommended that players be allowed three appeals per innings to the third umpire if they feel that a decision made by the on-field umpire is incorrect.
The recommendation states that it will only be used for leg before wicket decisions - where the ball pitches in respect of the leg stump and the point of impact on the batsman's pads, that from the fielding side only the captain will be entitled to make an appeal, that for the batting side only the batsman involved will be entitled to make an appeal.
THREE APPEALS
It also states that if the appeal is successful, the side making the appeal will still have three appeals, that if the appeal is not successful, the side making the appeal will lose one of its three appeals and that it be tried and then reviewed after the ICC Champions Trophy later this year.
According to a release from the ICC, the close vote followed an argument that with the correct umpiring decisions now standing at between 94 and 96 per cent, there was no need for it, and it followed reservations over what it will mean for the spirit of the game, the fabric of the game and the role and authority of the on-field umpires.
While it is good to know that there are only between six and four per cent bad decisions being made by umpires and while the role and authority of the on-field umpires should be and must be protected, as difficult as it may be to achieve, as impossible as it may be, the goal of the ICC must be for umpires to have a perfect record - for them not to cut down a batsman when he is not out or to hand a bowler a wicket that he does not deserve.
Malcolm Speed, the ICC's chief executive officer, has said that "what we hope this will do, if approved, is to help eradicate the very few obvious errors that may be made by umpires," and to those who play the game, especially so to batsmen who have been given out leg before wicket to balls pitched outside the legstump when, according to the laws, he is not out, it is as simple as that.
