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Does Umpire's Call need to go?

stephen

stephen

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Umpires call is silly.

The purpose of the technology is not to make 100% correct decisions but instead to make better decisions than a guy in his 60s tracking a projectile moving at 150 kph in a complicated trajectory that could legitimately see it move differently in three planes.

If we 100% trusted the technology, even with its current inaccuracies then no spectator would complain. Spectators are who the game is for ultimately. Who cares if it's not perfect if it's 100% consistent. The point is fairness, not perfection.
 
TheJediBrah

TheJediBrah

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No Umpire's call needs to stay. We've seen plenty examples of hawkeye being far from perfect with ball tracking. Like there's been some baffling examples.

I think the margin could be reduced further though. When you have a scenario where original decision is not out but it turns out (almost) half the ball is hitting the stumps, and it stays not out, that's hard to swallow. If the ball is smashing the stumps like that it really should be out, and just looks dumb if it stays not out because of umpires call.
 
The Hutt Rec

The Hutt Rec

International Vice-Captain
Was an interesting thread until the replies started being the length of a small encyclopedia.

The arguments about it being inaccurate are neither here nor there for me, we use it, so we trust it, and it’s more accurate than humans.

I’d change it to out if 25% of the ball or more is hitting the stumps.
 
Bahnz

Bahnz

Hall of Fame Member
Well really it depends on how accurate we think the technology is, which is very hard to test, given that it deals with hypotheticals. Until someone can come up with solid evidence that Hawkeye is more or less accurate than the half a ball width used currently, I'm pretty comfortable with it.
 
Shri

Shri

Mr. Glass
***** said:
people who complain about umpires call usually don't understand why umpires call exist to begin with tbh

technology isn't perfect. Neither are humans. Do you rather we put decisions in the hand of imperfect machines or imperfect people? Myself, I'd pick the people.
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Machines any day. At least its impartial and there is no question of bias or dependence and hope on a **** umpire's skill. But yeah, then you'd be out of a job so I can see where you are coming from.
 
trundler

trundler

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Not entirely but maybe umpires could be more consistent in what is given out when umpire's call. Too often identical shouts are sometimes given out and sometimes not. Sacking Dharmasena would probably help.
 
Shri

Shri

Mr. Glass
***** said:
It won't fix the crux of the issue would it though? This unrealistic expectation of perfect decisions, be it by a human or a machine, will never ever be met. There will always be borderline calls, and there will always be decisions that people don't agree with. You can try all you like to get closer to perfection, but you will not get it, and people who like to complain about it will keep doing so. This is a problem with no solution. We brought DRS in to make umpiring better, and it has worked, and yet people are angrier than ever before. What makes you think going full tech will make them any happier?

-----------------------------------

Now, if you will indulge me for a bit, i'll go on a rant. Skip this bit if you don't care.

I was speaking to Burgey about yesterday's game, and I was explaining to him why I'm not a big fan of DRS, mainly for three reasons:

1) players waste reviews all the time, and then fans and media complain about players being 'unlucky' when a call goes against them and their review was burned. DRS has created a whole new source of angst and self pitying.

2) people have gotten even angrier at umpires, and not because decision making has gone down since pre-technology days, but because errors are scrutinized to a greater degree than ever before. People didn't have computers and high tech cameras and the internet and fancy graphics to analyse every singe decision before. They'd see a batsman get out, and if they disagree, chalk it down to a tough decision and move on with their lives. That was a better time. Now this whole topic of umpiring has become the cesspool of negativity and toxicity wherein the match officials are now being perceived as holding the game back.

3) It's written in the spirit of cricket to respect the authority of the umpires, and DRS is literally the anthesis to this.

Match officials are humans and they make mistakes. Players make mistakes all the time too. Last night, CdG and Boult both made mistakes in taking catches, the one from Boult probably the one that cost them the game, yet these errors are getting less attention than those of the umpires. The number of errors in the game by all the players involved was huge. Think about all the miscued shots and fulltosses and fumbles on the field. These were mistakes. And yes, while the umpires were not great, they were still pretty damn good in comparison. But they don't get forgiven. People don't even understand the extent of the role of an umpire plays in the game, yet they're quick to condemn and criticize them.

Secondly, so many decisions this whole WC -and in the history of cricket, in general- have been judged incorrectly by people watching the game. Just read he match threads, twitter, even the live commentary. Heck, how many reviews have the players themselves gotten wrong? The umpires are making difficult calls out in the middle, and we can't get them 100%% right while sitting at home, watching on TV, with no external distractions and clearer view of the action, then why can't we cut umpires some slack when they get it wrong? This isn't umpiring so outrageously bad it makes you question if they're fixing the game (like we had in the 70s and 80s). These are understandable errors. If a player made an equivalent error while playing we'd forgive them, but in this new DRS culture, umpires get painted out as wildly incompetent for missing a thin edge or giving an LBW to a ball missing the stump by 5mm. It's so insane that we've now gotten to the point where we actually want to do away with them all together. It's so weird. Umpiring right now is the best it has ever been, but because we have easy access to their mistakes, we're also whinging about more than we ever have.

And ultimately, no matter how much you try to automate things, the human element will remain. There have been so many decisions that the third umpire, with all his tech, still can't figure out. We had one LBW call this WC itself where, even with benefit of the tech, we had no idea if it was bat first or pad. The third umpire had to decide using his own judgement, and people got mad. At the end of the day, a human being will have to make a call using his judgement at some point, and no matter what they decide, people will get mad. This is human nature. If the umpires were robots, people would complain about the people who built and programmed them. You're not going to solve this no matter how much you automate or bring tech in.

At the end of the day, there isn't actually a massive problem here that needs fixing. Games are not being won or loss solely on umpiring decisions. They may be a factor, but they will always be a factor. That is just what cricket is about. All sports suffer from this. The human element is part and parcel of sports, and it is what makes it beautiful.

Don't get me wrong - there are valid complaints, and I'm not trying to shut down all discussion on umpiring standards and processes. I just think we're going the wrong way when we think the solution to all this is to cut out humans all together.
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ok
 
Burgey

Burgey

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Shakib was only awesome through the prelims. Whereas I was awesome through the finals as well.
 
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