PostsArticles tagged as: umpires
Hair restored
By Will 4 months ago, 5 Comments »
Darrell Hair has been welcomed back into the 36DD bosom of the ICC following his “six month rehabilitation” which, among other things, involved him standing in a few ICC Intercontinental matches. Interesting development, not least because there’s no way on earth the Pakistan Cricket Board would ever have sanctioned his return to the fold following The Oval Test debacle. For what it’s worth, he’s one of the better umpires on the Elite panel, so I’m pleased he’s back. Besides - we haven’t had an opportunity for hairy puns for quite some time.
Are you pleased to see Hair restored to the fold?
5 Comments »Pietersen c Sangakkara b Vaas 1
By Will last year, mid-December, 6 Comments »
Oh how simple it sounds.
Pietersen c Sangakkara b Vaas 1
Alas, it is anything but - and the media (yes, I know I’m part of it, but I can still comment) might be making a meal of it in the coming 24 hours. For those of you who didn’t see it, this is what happened:
| 60.3 | Vaas to Pietersen, OUT, and the plan has worked, it’s a brilliant piece of work at slip, but wait, there’s controversy. Pietersen went for a drive at a wide ball, nicked to the third slip, Silva, who dived to his left and grabbed the catch low to the turf, it bobbles up and Sangakkara comes from first slip to take the rebound. Pietersen waits as the umpires consult, Harper raises his finger, but TV replays show the ball appears to have brushed the ground before the initial take by Silva. Pietersen waits inside the boundary, as he did at Lord’s earlier this year against India, but there’s no overturning this decision and he’s off |
Clarification from Andrew Miller:
The difference between the two incidents is that at Lord’s there wasn’t an original agreement between the umpires on Dhoni’s catch, it was given immediately by Simon Taufel. However, in Colombo the umpires conferred before deciding Pietersen was out and the laws state that the third official can only be used if the view of the on-field umpires is obstructed.
This is clearly bullshit and the law needs amending immediately. Like many, I still hanker after the good old days when video replays were rare and pretty inconclusive, but cricket must move with the times and we can’t have this middle-ground where technology is used sparingly. It’s making the sport look pretty damn stupid.
Your thoughts? Vote on the right-hand-side of the site, too.
Loading ...Like a pair of naughty schoolboys
By Jonathan Liew last year, mid-October, 9 Comments »
Trying to prove in a court of law that the governing body of cricket is racist is an ambitious aim, and it may well be that Darrell Hair’s surrender stems from a realisation that he was going to lose, and lose expensively. It also appears that he hasn’t managed to cut a deal with the ICC, and is thus probably destined to spend the rest of his life umpiring club cricket and shopping at Primark.
I can’t think of a single incident in the last decade which has split cricket more evenly. Both sides’ arguments make eminent sense. Yes, Hair was simply applying the laws of the game, yes, the Asian lobby probably do wield too much power and yes, the ICC should have offered him more support. But equally validly, Hair was a pompous, posturing fool that day, there was no firm evidence of ball-tampering and trying to blackmail your employers for $500,000, let alone labelling them racist, is just plain daft.
Mercifully, then, it appears to be all over. It’s not really for me to apportion blame to one side or the other – although you should feel free below – but in this ugly display of playground mudslinging, neither party has exactly covered itself in glory and you can’t help thinking that surely, surely, the world of cricket can do better than this. Hair and the ICC have behaved like a pair of name-calling schoolboys. And as your teacher always told you: “It doesn’t matter who started it. You shouldn’t have reacted.â€
9 Comments »The new generation of umpires
By Will 2 years ago, at the end of September, No Comments; be the first!
Prolific Patrick - and that’s not his full name - has another interesting article on his blog, this time on Michael Gough, the former Durham batsman-turned-umpire. He’s just 26 and was highly regarded as a young player (he represented England Under-19s) - and is now a first-class umpire, which is an interesting development. Talking to Patrick, he says: “All sports officials are getting younger,” Gough said. “It is no longer for old guys in white jackets.”
Worth a read.
No Comments »ICC innovations structure isn’t very appealing
By Scott 2 years ago, at the start of May, 6 Comments »
It has been reported in today’s paper that the ICC are considering a trial where players can appeal against the umpires decision. They are talking about using the Champions Trophy as a test bed for the idea. I noted the other day that the players don’t take the Champions Trophy very seriously, and it appears that the ICC does not either.
The ICC cricket committee, chaired by Indian great Sunil Gavaskar and including former Australian captain Allan Border, will debate whether players should be allowed to appeal against a certain number of decisions per innings if they feel they have been wronged by umpires.
An appeals system has been used in the National Football League for years, and the ICC denied such a process in cricket could undermine the authority of the standing umpires.
“What we are looking to do is increase the already high numbers of correct decisions made by our on-field umpires without diminishing their role and this approach has the potential to do just that,” said Dave Richardson, ICC’s general manager of cricket.
Presumably, a captain could appeal, say, two contentious decisions per innings and ask that they be referred to the third umpire. The standard of international umpiring has been a big issue recently.
The standard of international umpiring is in fact fine, if you ask me. Australia toured South Africa and Bangladesh and played 5 tests and 8 odi games and I don’t remember a single contentious decision.
While I am a crusty old curmudgeon, I do not in fact have a problem with new ideas in cricket. However, I do have notions about the proper place to test new ideas, and the ICC Champions Trophy, whatever its merits, or otherwise, is not in fact one of those places. If the ICC had asked a member country to test its ’supersub’ rule in a domestic competition, the flaws in the idea, which were manifest at the time anyway, could have been demonstrated in a slightly less public manner.
6 Comments »Inappropriate umpires
By Will 2 years ago, mid-April, 5 Comments »
Ah, the umpire. A bastion of respect and authority, standing static at the top end of the pitch. We curse their decisions and mock them when they do an irish jig to avoid a bludgeoned four, but they remain the game’s “final word”. Without them, carnage would ensue. Which got me thinking…
Who would be the most inappropriate umpire? My top ones so far are Basil Fawlty, Baldrick from Blackadder and the dodgy geezer from the Fast Show (”I’m a little bit wehhhh, little bit woooaaah. I’ll nick anyfink, me”).
Of equal hilarity and shitness would be various political leaders past and present: Hitler (although he’d clearly enjoy giving batsmen out, with that salute of his), Stalin (twat), Churchill (drunk and disorderly) and Blair (clown, egocentric, wouldn’t enjoy lack of spotlight).
Oh God, Blair really would cock it up spectacularly.
And yours?
5 Comments »Billy Bowden’s bizarre and bonkers signalling
By Will 3 years ago, at the start of November, 23 Comments »
Stumbled across (as is the blogger’s wont) a new cricket blog. Well - new to me. And John, the blogger, has done a brilliant cartoon of Mr Bowden’s unusual, quite funny but ulimately irritating signalling. Good stuff John!
23 Comments »Bob Woolmer speaks about the use of technology
By Will 3 years ago, at the end of October, 10 Comments »
We initially were wary that a certain Bob Woolmer had emailed in - but sure enough, it was he, and he wrote a very interesting response on our new blog, Wicket to Wicket, about the use of technology in aiding umpiring. Check it out.
10 Comments »Corruption in The Ashes?
By Will 3 years ago, mid-September, 6 Comments »
Read this bloke’s comment. A bitter fan, or does he have a point?
6 Comments »Darryl Harper on David Shepherd
By Will 3 years ago, at the end of July, 5 Comments »
Fellow umpire Daryl Harper has posted his thoughts on the recently-retired David Shepherd, including this gem:
5 Comments »In August 2000 at The Oval, Courtney Walsh walked out to bat for the final time in a Test match on English soil. He was greeted with a guard of honour from his opponents as he entered the ground in his customary batting position at number eleven. As I stood with Shep and applauded the champion, David recalled that Don Bradman had been given a similar send-off on the same ground, 52 years earlier in his final Test match. As I returned to my position at the bowler’s end, I passed the big West Indian whose eyes were flowing with tears of emotion. I quickly mentioned the Bradman link as Shep had recalled, adding that the Don had made a second ball duck! Courtney threw his head back and vowed to do better than that. The first ball from Domenic Cork passed outside off stump and Walsh flashed at it without getting close. The second delivery was pitched on off stump and Walsh pushed forward with his bat. The ball eluded the wood and cannoned into the front pad, somewhere near the knee roll. It wasn’t a tough decision for me…..Courtney Walsh had emulated Bradman in his final Test innings in England.
Goodbye, Shep
By Will 3 years ago, mid-July, 2 Comments »
Old Shep’ retires tomorrow - his final match should, hopefully, be a cracker. There are some great photos of him at Cricinfo
2 Comments »David Shepherd’s last ODI
By Will 3 years ago, at the start of July, 6 Comments »
It’s old Shep’s last ODI today and David Foot profiles the great man here
Hat tip: Scott
6 Comments »Umpires to be wired up to eachother
By Will 3 years ago, at the end of June, 2 Comments »
From the ICC:
The ICC has decided to link cricket umpires through wire to enable them to communicate with each other during a match.
Announcing this in London, ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed said that trials of connecting the umpires would be held at the Johnnie Walker Super Series in Australia in October.
The two umpires on the field will be linked to each other, the third umpire, and microphones in the ground near the stumps, he said.
“Let’s get umpires used to this form of technology before we give them the added pressure,” The News quoted Speed as saying.
Meanwhile, the ICC Board also approved changes to one-day cricket likely to be trialed in the three-match series between England and Australia starting next month.
Under the changes, the teams will be allowed to a substitute to strengthen their batting or bowling. If, for example, a batsman is not used during an innings, he can be substituted to add an extra bowler. And, the field restrictions currently in force for the first 15 overs of a 50-over match will be extended for longer.
“We’ll trial these changes for 10 months and, if they make the game more interesting, then we’ll keep them,” said Speed.
No great change in the communications Umpires already have with eachother (they use walky-talkies at the moment to talk to the 3rd umpire: this “change” allows the two on-field umpires to chat to eachother, perhaps share a joke or laugh at a tail-ender). The significant change is - unless I’ve mis-interpreted the wording - they’ll have “access,” or will be able to listen to, the stump mic.
Like the other changes the ICC have recently made, which have caused a storm here at The COU, I’m equally confused about these. On occasion, umpires do have trouble hearing nicks and edges. Yesterday, and I can’t remember who the players were, an Australian nicked the ball behind - and no one, apart from the ‘keeper Jones, heard the edge. David Shepherd shrugged his shoulders, and it wasn’t until we saw (or heard) on TV there was a definate edge.
How distracting, how helpful will this technology be for umpires? There are now more aids for them than ever, with the option of referring dodgy decisions to the bloke upstairs (which they are obviously more inclined to do for fear of public retribution/humiliation). And I guess the percentage of correct decisions made for edges off the bat will increase - but at what cost? The game, and its changes, are moving so quickly - and the addition of technology has certainly been a boon for the couch-potatoes (raise your hand) - however, perhaps it’s my fear that increased use of technology removes umpires’ control of a match situation, and also has the effect of “de-romancing” the great game.
Ultimately, if it helps the umpires - and if the umpires want it - we should just accept it. The game’s rules, regulations and changes are moving along at a frightening pace though.
2 Comments »Daryl Harper’s thoughts on England and Bangladesh
By Will 3 years ago, mid-June, 1 Comment »
Daryl has an online diary, as has been publicised here before, and has recently and belatedly posted his thoughts on the 2nd Test between England and Bangladesh. No other umpire, that I know of, is doing this - so it’s pretty exciting, and maybe newer/younger umpires might follow Daryl’s lead and even start blogging. That would be awesome. He also has some interesting photos.
1 Comment »“A great guy and a great umpire”: Slater on Shepherd’s final day
By Will 3 years ago, at the start of June, No Comments; be the first!
Well, it’s all over for the West Indies - and David Shepherd too. Quite a sad moment as old Shep walks off the field for the final time. A guard of honour and big bear-hugs all round, and I’m sure he must be feeling quite emotional. I’ve always loved hearing and watching Shep umpire - an umpire who’s always appeared to be very honest, very consistent and who commands the respect of all the players.
In an interview the other day, he said (not quoting) “Players respect me; but umpires must respect the players, too.” T’ra Shep, have a beer or 3
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