South Africa All Out, Referrals Not Convincing

England dismissed South Africa for 418 in their first innings of the first Test at Centurion, in what is warming into a nicely balanced contest.

The tourists will be fairly happy with their display. The bowlers worked hard for their ten wickets,  Graeme Swann the pick of the bunch with 5 for 110.

For the hosts, Jacques Kallis stroked a chanceless hundred and there were decent contributions from Ashwell Prince, JP Duminy and Mark Boucher – but none made enough runs to take the game away from England.

The one contentious issue has been the new referral system. On day one it worked splendidly, giving reprieve to Prince and AB De Villiers.

But, on day two, Graeme Swann trapped Morne Morkel on the crease and everyone – umpire Steve Davies included – thought it was a straight forward decision.

Hawkeye, however, disagreed and Morkel was given another life. From every angle I saw, it looked as plum as an lbw can be.

If the system is there to make Test cricket better – and it needs something given the terrible crowd at Supersport Park – I’m not sure this system is it.

Watching Morkel, a hulk of a man, prod around for an extra half hour, blocking and nudging, is not going to turn anyone’s eye from Twenty20.

As if batsmen need any more help in this day and age; bigger bats and smaller boundries, now coupled with some extra lives, spells a dark era for the world’s bowlers.

Referrals: Should They Stay Or Should They Go?

Mark Benson is preparing to retire from umpiring after he returned home from the Adelaide test because of the controversial referral system, according to Cricinfo.

It is now high time the ICC made a decision about the future of the Umpire Decision Review System (UDRS).

First pioneered a year ago, the system has come under constant criticism from players and umpires alike.

Ricky Ponting was the latest to vent his dismay at the UDRS during the current Test with the West Indies, when Shivnarine Chanderpaul was given not out, despite video evidence apparently supporting a dismissal. Ponting and bowler Doug Bollinger’s heated exchange with Benson is thought to be the chief reason for the English umpires walkout.

After a year of testing, the time has come to either integrate the UDRS permanently into all Test series or to scrap it and go back to the drawing board.

Not surprisingly, the notoriously idiotic big-wigs at the ICC are still dodging the issue.

If we have learnt one thing from the last year, it is that cricket has enough on its’ plate at the moment without having to worry about checking every decision with a bloke in the commentary box.

And where do 30-second breaks every couple of overs fit into the 100mph, rock-star slugfest that is Twenty20?

Replays have worked at international level for run-outs and, to a point, for catches. But the biggest problem with the UDRS is that it takes the professional game too far away from the grass-roots games being played on our parks every Saturday afternoon.

Football benefits dramatically from the fact that it is fundamentally the same game at Old Trafford as it is at the local recreation ground. Twenty-two players, two sets of goalposts, one referee, one ball.

The more changes you make, the wider the gap becomes between the pros and the amateurs.

Stop meddling ICC and lets get back to concentrating on bat vs ball.