Javed Miandad ... a critic of the move. - FILE
NEW DELHI (Reuters):
A PLAN to allow teams to appeal against umpiring decisions during one-day games will not diminish the umpires' roles, a senior ICC official said yesterday.
"The beauty of this process recommended is two-fold," Dave Richardson, general manager, cricket at cricket's ruling body, said.
"One, it does not take away from the role of the onfield umpire - he must make his decision.
"Only if the player feels he has made a mistake, then he can say to him 'Can you check that please (with the TV umpire)?'.
"In effect the referrals will happen only when there has been a mistake."
THREE APPEALS
The ICC proposal announced this month would allow teams three appeals per innings to the third umpire if a decision is disputed.
The move has come in for criticism with former Pakistan captain Javed Miandad, among others, saying it could convey a lack of confidence in the umpires.
If the ICC cricket committee backs the rule and it is accepted by the ICC board at its July meeting, it would be tried out at this year's ICC Champions Trophy in India and, if successful, repeated at next year's Cricket World Cup.
Richardson said the cricketing fraternity was equally divided over using technology to aid umpires.
"If you were to take a system and say 'let us have technology to decide' then it will be different," the ex-South Africa wicketkeeper said.
"What we are saying is umpires, you decide, and if there is a mistake we will rectify it.
"If we can't, we won't be worse off than we were before."
He launched the official ICC website for player and team rankings (www.lgiccrankings.com) which provides comparative statistics between current and past players.
