Monday, December 15, 2003		Feature

Sachin Tendulkar’s dubious dismissal during the first cricket Test at Gabba has led to a fresh debate on introduction of technology for ruling leg before decisions.

Former India all rounder Ravi Shastri called for third umpires to be given the power to adjudicate on leg before decision with the aid of eye-in-the-sky video replays. "There’s a lot of pressure on umpires to make immediate calls and we have technology so why not use it?" Shastri was quoted as saying in an Australian newspaper. "Umpires could press a button to call for replays of some lbw decision."

The use of video replays for lbw decisions was first experimented with during the Champions Trophy one-day tournament in Sri Lanka in 2002 but the concept was abandoned as it turned out to be too time-consuming.Former Australian captain Greg Chappell though had his reservation about the use of technology.

"You want to make sure that technology is going to give you the right decision. But is it going to tell you the ball is passing over the stumps?"

"It also takes away from the credibility of the umpire. You basically reduce them to being ball counters and I don’t know whether I would want to be an umpire if all it involved was counting balls," Chappell said.

On Tendulkar’s reaction to the shocker from umpire Steve Bucknor, Shastri said he was quite impressed with the dignity that the Indian maestro showed in accepting the decision. "Everyone makes mistakes and that was a poor decision but I thought what came out of it was the way Tendulkar handled it. He was extremely composed where a lot of other batsmen would have thrown the toys out of the cot.

"I don’t know what I might have done, I probably would have lost it... For me, that just goes to show what a role model Sachin is for the younger players and why he is respected all over the world." — PTI