DRS and Umpire's Call Conundrum

 Technology has started to play a crucial role in the fast changing world. The world of sports hasn't been untouched by this digital age either. Teams are starting to deploy technology more and more to improve the game level in terms of individual skills of the player, detailed analysis of the game and the opposition, creating strategies off the field etc. The Decision Review System (DRS) has become a major part of cricket in recent times that affects the game directly. And there has been a lot of discussions about one specific rule called the umpire's call in this which is worth a discussion.

Signal Of DRS

What is DRS

The Decision Review System (DRS) is a system deployed in cricket to help the teams in reviewing the decision given by the on-field umpires during a match. When a team is unhappy with the umpire's decision, they can opt for DRS and the decision goes to the third umpire who makes use of replays and technologies provided for his assistance to make the correct decision. Some of these technologies that have been used over past some years include Hotspot, Snicko, UltraEdge and Ball Tracking. Generally, teams are given two (or three in test matches) unsuccessful reviews per innings at their disposal. Once you exhaust these, you cannot use any more reviews in that innings. Given that the umpires need to make lots of decisions on the filed within split seconds and sometimes during enormous pressure situations, it is fair to assume that some of the decisions made by umpires might be wrong. This system was introduced to assist the umpires in making fair decisions and avoid visibly wrong decisions so that game can be played more fairly. 

Hotspot

UltraEdge

What is Ball Tracking

Ball Tracking is the current tool that is used to review the LBW decisions. It shows the predicted path where the ball would have headed if it did not strike the batsman's pads. If the predicted path shows that the ball would have hit the stumps, batsman is deemed out but if it misses the stumps, batsman is deemed not out. It also tracks whether the ball's impact where the ball hit the batsman's pads was in line with the stumps or not. According to the laws of LBW, the impact where the ball hits the pads should be in line with the stumps for a batsman to be given out.

Ball Tracking

What is Umpires Call

The general rule states that if the ball's impact is in the line with the stumps and the ball would have gone to hit the stumps if not obstructed by the batsman's pads, the batsman is given out LBW. But there's a small catch in this: If less than 50% of the ball is in line with the stumps or less than 50% of the ball would have gone to hit the stumps, the decision is neither out or not out, it is deemed as umpire's call. This means that the decision that was given by the umpire on-field will stay valid and will not be overturned. If the umpire gave it as out, it will remain out, and if the decision was given not out, it will remain not out. So the question raised by many people is that, if the ball would have eventually hit the stumps, even if it is less than 50%, why not give it out always and why go with the umpire's call ?

Umpire's call

Why Umpire's Call is Good

It is important to note that the umpire's call is given only in touch-and-go situations or during very close calls. In normal circumstances, where the decision is visibly clear whether ball would have hit the stumps or not, there is no ambiguity of out or not out. There are a numerous reasons why the umpire's call is good in cricket and should be continued in cricket:

• The path of the ball is only predicted by the technology and no one knows where the ball would have headed if it did not hit the batsman's pads. So to say with certainty in these close call situations whether ball would have hit the stumps or not would be an overstatement. Balls so many times can see late swing, might overspin or undercut a bit, depending on the kind of delivery being bowled and the conditions match is being played in. Since all this is ambiguous, it is better to stay with the on-field decision in such close calls.

• There is always a slight margin of error in technology. No technology can give 100% accurate results. So to accommodate those margins of error in technology, the close calls should go with the umpire.

• The DRS system is introduced to assist the umpires and to rule out the visibly wrong decisions. The power of deciding in the situations where the out or not out call could have gone either way should reside with the umpire itself. The role of technology is to help umpires in making the right decisions and not to replace the umpires completely.

• If we rule out umpire's call completely and start giving all of them as out, the batsman would start getting dismissed even more cheaply as they do now. This would have an impact on the longevity of the matches being played. Matches would start finishing even sooner, and test matches might start finishing in 3 days much more often times than they already do.

Notably, when the umpire's call comes, the team doesn't lose the review and have chance to take review again later on in the match. Thus due to all these reasons, I believe umpire's call in cricket is a good call. I would like to know your thoughts on this as well. Let me know below in the comments section.