The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) should be more receptive to the Decision Review System (DRS). The huge number of umpiring errors being committed in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) could have been reduced had the DRS been used. Though IPL has been the front-runner among the Twenty20 leagues around the world, refusing to introduce the DRS is disappointing.
Pakistan Super League (PSL) introduced the DRS in their play-off matches in the UAE and reaped its benefits. The IPL, which is flushed with money, can afford to introduce this system rather than disappoint fans through umpiring lapses.
A few of the decisions were so shocking that it seemed like some umpires need an eye test urgently.
Mumbai Indians’ Jos Buttler being declared leg before to Rising Pune Supergiant’s spinner Imran Tahir was shocking. Umpire Sundaram Ravi declared him out despite a massive deflection off his bat before the ball hit his front pad. It was a funny situation because the Pune fielders were late in appealing but Ravi’s decision was quicker. In the same match Ravi declared Mumbai’s Kevin Pollard not out despite the ball hitting the pads right in front of the stumps. Wicketkeeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who jokingly signalled for a DRS review for that decision, was even reprimanded for it.
Nitin Menon, an umpire nominated by the BCCI for the international panel, seemed to have a serious problem in judging leg before decisions. He declared Kolkata Knight Riders’ Robin Uthappa not out to a leg before appeal from Gujarat Lions’ Basil Thampi though the ball was crashing into the middle stump. The most bizarre one was when umpire Anil Dandekar demonstrated to Sunrisers Hyderabad Mohammad Nabi that his appeal for leg before against Kings XI Punjab opener Manan Vohra was wrong, and that the batsman had edged; but TV replays showed no contact at all!
I am reminded of an advice from the late umpire A.M. Mamsa, whose umpiring classes I had attended in Mumbai. He believed that an umpire’s job was to judge a decision and never to demonstrate the correctness of his decision.
During the April 12th match, Sunrisers captain David Warner faced the last ball of an over, and again the first ball of the next over without legally crossing over! Both the umpires were caught napping. When the International Cricket Council did not include any Indian umpire in their panel, they were accused of bias; but it’s time Indian umpires lifted their standards.
Introducing DRS could have saved them of a few blunders that are now being highlighted. There have been instances of the snick for caught behind going unheard, or umpires miscounting the number of balls in an over. Human errors are pardonable, but not carelessness.