The Umpire Referral System may have got mixed reviews from the cricket fraternity with some players for and some against it (Sachin Tendulkar is against it, Harbhajan Singh is for it ), but now the International Cricket Council (ICC) Chief Executive Haroon Lorgat has come out in favour of it. He was quoted in the cricket news recently as saying, "The referral system, which Tendulkar experienced first-hand during India's 1-2 Test series defeat to Sri Lanka last year, has improved the rate of giving correct decisions."

The Umpire Referral System has been much in the cricket news and headlines recently for having its detractors and supporters; however it has been shown to reduce the margin of error in umpiring decisions since its implementation. "The idea is to give sufficient help (to the umpires) to get the decisions correct. We have seen that the correct decisions' percentage has gone up from 94 to 98 per cent with this system in place," Lorgat was quoted as having said in Mumbai at a press conference. He added that CC's Cricket Committee would decide on the matter in May when it meets and put forward their proposal to the Executive Board in June.

Others including umpires themselves have come out in favour of the system. Daryl Harper and Rudi Koertzen have both come out in favour of the system which they say has helped cut down mistakes. The system, which allows each side two unsuccessful appeals against the on field umpires has been criticised as undermining the authority of the on field umpires.

Koertzen has however been quoted in the cricket news as having stated that “The objective of the review system is to eliminate the obvious errors. Inevitably there will still be decisions that people will argue are wrong but that is not really the point of the system. Statistics from the trial so far show the system is getting rid of mistakes.”

Daryl Harper also disagreed with the proposition that the system was causing “unnecessary stoppages”. “This system gives everyone a second chance to get appeals answered correctly when umpires may have erred - this is done with more time and with the help of a limited range of technology to review incidents,” said Harper.

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3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."

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