“Allowing cricket umpires to take charge on the field again!”

Aug 31, 2014 Sports

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Colin E. H. Croft
Recently, troubling situations have developed as regards especially international off-spinners being referred by umpires to be assessed by ICC regulators with respect to their suspect bowling actions.
Latest are two veteran off-spinners, Zimbabwe’s Propser Utseya and Pakistan’s world rated Saeed Ajmal, who had prodigiously destroyed teams world-wide. These situations are somewhat confusing!
Budding Bangladeshi off-spinner, Sohag Gazi, who made his international debut in 2012, has also been reported for a suspect action during the recent ODI series v West Indies.
Twenty-three year old Gazi had a recent birthday present that he could not enjoy, after playing ten Tests, twenty ODI’s and nine T-20-I’s; sixty four wickets for his country. He will be tested in September, when his present tour to WI ends.
Twenty-nine year-old Utseya has played for Zimbabwe since 2004 – fully ten years – with four Tests, one hundred fifty seven ODI’s and twenty nine T-20-I’s; 157 wickets for his country. He has never been thought to have a suspect bowling action. Suddenly, he is referred for exactly that!
Thirty-six year-old Ajmal’s case is worse. He had been cleared after having similar assessments in the past, so this new assessment can be almost career-ending after debuting in 2008; Pakistan’s best recent bowler!
He has played thirty five Tests, one hundred and ten ODI’s and sixty three T-20-I’s; 445 international wickets overall.
Last week, Ajmal traveled to Brisbane, Australia, from Sri Lanka, where his team is engaged in a tight ODI series, to undergo tests to confirm if some of his recent deliveries were fair or illegal. The obvious question is this: How did these guys, and many others, manage to play so much cricket over the last years without any problems or calls about their bowling actions?
In the last year, New Zealand’s Kane Williamson, Sri Lanka’s Sachitra Senanayake, WI’s Shane Shillingford and South Africa’s Johan Botha, all off-spinners, have been sent for tests. Very interesting!
Another adjunct question: What happens now to all of the wickets that these bowlers may have taken with supposed bowling actions that were being referred to as suspect?
Being steeped in aviation, I know the usefulness of technology, automation, and absolute use of computerization in all of our lives, but one must also note that any machine could only work as it has been programmed to do, by some human, so as to operate well. Hence, yes, they could also be wrong!
In 1998, West Indies played England in Test No. 5 of that 6-Test series, at Kensington Oval, Barbados, during which I had great conversations with two better friends in the international umpiring fraternity.
Umpire Cyril Mitchley of South Africa is one of the most honest cricketing people I have ever met.
From a friendship and competitiveness that went back to primary school at Unity-Lancaster Government School, Mahaica, and Central High School; 1970’s; Guyanese umpire Eddie Nicholls, always productive for his schools too or Police Sports Club, was the other on-field umpire of that game.
That was a treat, having conversations with people who were honest and willing enough to give their opinions and worrying thoughts about our great game. Unfortunately, that is not so anymore.
Incidentally, our main topic of these conversations was that umpires can be replaced by robots!
Neither umpire lasted much longer after those times, as apparently, nowadays, only almost humanoid robots can become international umpires.
What else can anyone suggest, when present umpires make no more than token decisions anyway, seemingly expecting, probably relieved that most decisions would be reviewed anyway, removing their on-field responsibilities to umpires in the “box”, whose efforts are not always better!
Older, former WI cricketers speak of umpires of a different time; Australians Robbin Bailache and Max O’ Connell, England’s Arthur Fagg, Dickie Bird and Dave Constant, excellent umpires who would not only give you out, or not, instantly, but would take the time to give reasons for decisions!
When I played for WI, our best umpires were Jamaica’s Douglas Sang Hue and Trinidad & Tobago’s Ralph Gosein, with opportunities too for Barbados’ Stanton Parris and Guyanese Compton Vyphuis.
Few of their decisions were questioned, such was the trust and continuity of the game. Do not get this incorrectly. Umpires back then made mistakes too, but, generally, so few and so evenly dispersed that most were simply acknowledged, the game moving on.
Sang Hue died recently, bringing an end to a legacy and era that would never return, since no longer are umpires allowed to make almost any calls whatsoever. Nowadays, no decision, not a “no-ball” call for throwing or over-stepping, or run-outs, can be done without standard referrals to screens for verification; technological aids programmed, ironically, by humans.
How the hell do we know that these humanly-programed elements are correct anyway? But if that is the case, why are there any umpires on the field at all, except that they are there to simply count six balls?
The time is long gone, like the demise of the dinosaurs, when umpires like Sang Hue would ever reign again. Now, we use umpiring technology mostly for entertainment purposes. Enjoy!

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