Umpiring - Speed of Decisions

[Neil Pickup]

I'm sure plenty of you will have received the cricinfo mass-mailing advert for their Office Umpire" game recently.
It’s not easy being an umpire. Decisions have to be made in the blink of an eye and when the pressure is applied, would you be able to keep your finger down or are you trigger happy? Now you can find out in our interactive Hawkeye game, The Office Umpire.

However, I can't imagine that too many other people will have had it forwarded to them seconds later by their club's Colts Secretary with the text "had to forward this..." I get the feeling I'm beginning to get a reputation here.

Last night, I gave a front foot LBW with about 0.2 seconds in between appeal and finger raising. Seeing as there was a significant stride in, there was a distinct air of unimpressedness, and the suggestion that I'd not even given it a decent amount of though.

My thought processes were, as the ball travelled through the air (left arm over to right hand bat) - pitches leg, straightens, never missing off, hit him below the knee, knee's bent, is it going over the top, no it isn't, out, finger up.

I've replayed it in my mind several times since, and I'm still sure it was out. It was certainly a damn sight more out than Jacob Oram's this afternoon, anyway.

Anyway, does an LBW - or any - decision carry more weight, or less dubiousness, if you look like you've taken your time over considering it, even if you just spend a second or two over trying to remember if you've got enough food in the fridge to cook with that evening - or does a rapid decision indicate certainty?

Discuss...

 

[Jungle Jumbo]

Not really - if the finger goes straight up then it appears fairly plumb in the umpire's mind, and he obviously hasn't been influenced by anything during the appeal. Instinct is always best, because as soon as you start pondering about your decision the precise trajectory and direction of the ball becomes muddled.

Probably not a good comparison but with my football reffing people are generally happier if you make an instant decision, right or wrong, than appear unsure.

 

[Armadillo]

I don't think that the instinctive reaction would attract dubiousness however I find it would be more helpful for the umpire to assess things, take a look, just like Simon Taufel. And we all know he's the best umpire in the world.

 

[open365]

I think i balance between long and short time wise is the best option, if you decide it's out in 0.2 seconds when it isn't you look like sort of like you were waiting to give it out out and if you take a long time, it's a sign that your not sure so when you give it out the batsman will have some where to direct his frustrations at.

Tbh, i think it's a hit and miss subject, there's no right legnth to take, it matters what decision you gave and sometimes you give the right one but get stick anyway so in the end, just give the right decision and your better off.

 

[Goughy]

I much prefer the quick decision.

Being decisive is very important. I go for the Dickie Bird, finger up quickly and "Thats Out!" said at the same time.

I do not like it when umps think about things. Its either out or not and the more you think the more your mind plays tricks on you.

Should be quick and simple and if you have to think hard then stop and give it not out.

 

[cpr]

Given that lbw thing a try.

Gotta say its a bit turd, too many times the balls pitched outside off, hit pad outside the line of offstump (i'm guessing because its a forward defensive stance a shot was played), but it brushes off stump due to the angle of delivery, and apparently its out


As for decision speed, if your sure, a quick self confirming nod to yourself, then a confident finger, eye contact to the batsman to let him know your confident in your decision, is the best way for me

 

[age_master]

Given that lbw thing a try.

Gotta say its a bit turd, too many times the balls pitched outside off, hit pad outside the line of offstump (i'm guessing because its a forward defensive stance a shot was played), but it brushes off stump due to the angle of delivery, and apparently its out

yeah i got 2 of those, scored 2500 odd i think, pretty simple though, you dont have to worry about what the ball is hitting, inside edges and alike

 

[BoyBrumby]

Personally I like a tiny delay, in the heat of the moment it shows (or seemingly shows) that the ump's at least run over the possibilities in his mind.

At the standard I play at often (invariably!) the ump is connected to one of the teams, so if he appears a tad trigger-happy it can sometimes lead to ill-will or the odd snide comment at least.

Personally I think you can think of umps as one-man juries; if I were on trial I'd like to know a jury had a least weighed up the evidence before condeming me to my fate!

 

[vic_orthdox]

There's not much worse than being rifled out, especially if you think you might've been a bit stiff.

 

[honestbharani]

Depends on how close the decision was. I certainly hated it when Bucknor took ages to give straightforward decisions. He probably thought it was the way he HAD to do it.

 

[shankar]

Actually I thought the way Bucknor did it (when he was good) was ideal. Any element of doubt should go to the batsman - If any doubt occured to the umpire while replaying the delivery in his mind, he would have to give it not-out immediately. If there was no doubt even after he had gone over all the questions in his mind, only then should he give it out. So, ideally you would expect not-out decisions to be quick and out decisions to be slow.