BOMBAY, 24 March 2006 — The introduction of technology, as an adjunct to the two umpires on the field, was prompted by two main considerations. One was to minimize as much as possible the likelihood of human error of judgment. After all, the umpires are human and are subject to the stress of having to decide in a trice on an appeal. The other was to bring in absolute impartiality to support neutral umpires, which have become the order of the day.
Thus, no international cricket match can be played anywhere without having the back-up of live television coverage. The television acts as a third umpire’s tool in adjudicating on decisions referred to him by the field umpires. This has helped to eliminate any doubts even in the minds of the players.
This system functioned smoothly all along and became an integral part of the game the world over. The compulsory television coverage has resulted in high premium being put on the TV rights and a major source of income.
Now, what happened on the third day of the third Test between India and England at Bombay’s Wankhede Stadium has, for the first time, brought up the danger of either overuse or misuse of this technology.
Indian wicket-keeper batsman Mahendra Singh Dhoni was going great guns and after hitting Andrew Flintoff for three successive boundaries, scrambled for a hasty single. James Anderson’s throw from mid-on shattered the stumps. Umpire Darrell Hair referred the run-out appeal matter to the third umpire, K. Hariharan of India of India. Several replays showed that the issue was very close. As such Hariharan had called for more replays. In the meanwhile, however, the giant TV screen on the ground already declared Dhoni out by its display on the screen.
The third umpire was furious and since Dhoni had already left the field after seeing the message “OUT” on the ground video screen, had not alternative but to flash the red light. This gave rise to a big controversy as most people believed that technically, according to the rules, Dhoni was not out as he had made his ground before the bails were not completely off their grooves.
The placement of giant screen on at many grounds is given a television feed for the benefit of the spectators. These screens are also used to flash messages from scorers, statisticians and also decisions of the third umpire. But the first signal, in the case of the third umpire’s decision has to be on the indicators where green and red lights are placed. The television screens cannot pre-empt these decisions as had happened in the case of Dhoni.
All this is on account of over-commercialization of the television rights. Nowadays, apart from selling television rights, the Board of Control for Cricket in India, allow the setting up of video screens on the ground on a high payment. The video-screen owners in turn earn revenue by running commercials on the screen in between the cricket action.
The coverage of the match to be fed to the video screens are controlled by the ground authorities which also controls are communication links between the ground umpires and the third umpire’s cabin.
