Appalling umpiring

[Lillian Thomson]

Excepting the old adage that umpires are human and make mistakes and that they even themselves out over time, I still think that some decisions being made at the highest level are no longer acceptable. It seems that an innings never passes without a fairly glaring error being made. The Katich one today was absolutely ridiculous and as an England fan I don't like to see things like that take some gloss off the achievements of the team. The standards today are almost certainly higher than they've ever been and some umpires from the past would not survive long given today's technology, but we now have a full time elite panel of umpires and even allowing for inevitable human error we are seeing decisions(like Katich) which are not acceptable. The players have to take a certain amount of blame for their incessent appealing - mainly for catches - when they know it's not out, but in the case of an LBW when the ball neither pitches in line or is going to hit the stumps is not exceptable at International level.

[sledger]

one bad call is all it was....those kind of things are bound to happen now and again, they are frustrating when they go agaisnt you, but its just part of the game imo.

[aussie]

well if England do win the ashes they wontive a F**k about the wrong decisions that were made & it certainy wont take the gloss out of the achievement...

[Lillian Thomson]

It's not just about one decision today, that is just one example of a decision which I don't think is acceptable. They will make mistakes, but that is an example of a mistake which should not be made.

[sledger]

then surely by what you are sayin no mistakes would be made, these mistakes usually balanace themseleves out over time, and unless you can find better umpires who can stand all day and make decisions in an instant then nothing should change.

[luckyeddie]

Do away with the front-foot no-ball law to give umpires an extra 0.2 of a second to focus, or better still automate the no-ball and allow the umpire to look down the pitch instead of at the ground then to have to hurriedly look up.

[Pratters]

Originally Posted by luckyeddie

Do away with the front-foot no-ball law to give umpires an extra 0.2 of a second to focus, or better still automate the no-ball and allow the umpire to look down the pitch instead of at the ground then to have to hurriedly look up.

Have thought on the same lines. One of the two alternatives have to be adopted. Not sure why the no ball rule was changed to front foot (the big windies fast bowlers forced that rule change too I would imagine?)

[Lillian Thomson]

Originally Posted by sledger

then surely by what you are sayin no mistakes would be made, these mistakes usually balanace themseleves out over time, and unless you can find better umpires who can stand all day and make decisions in an instant then nothing should change.

Not at all. Some mistakes are understandable, like the Kasper decision at the end of the 2nd Test when it had to be slowed down and shown from many angles to prove that it wasn't out. The LBW against Katich is an example of a very poor decision which no International umpire should get wrong.

[greg]

Do you know how difficult it is for an umpire to judge where the ball has pitched wrt the line of the stumps? And for all the talk of "benefit of the doubt" it really isn't applicable for these decisions. As we've seen from Australian fans with Warne this series, the umpires aren't given the benefit of the doubt when they decide they're not sure when the ball in fact pitches in line. The umpire has to decide where it pitched and stick to it. One minute loss of concentration and they're stuffed. And then they get things wrong.

Trent Bridge is also a notoriously difficult ground for umpires as the then acclaimed "best umpire in the world" Taufel found last year. It just seems to produce an incredible no. of LBWs as mode of dismissal.

[Lillian Thomson]

If we're just going to judge the decision today then Rodney Marsh got it right when he said that to hit stumps it would have either have had to pitch outside the line of leg stump or swung an unlikely amount.

[luckyeddie]

Originally Posted by Lillian Thomson

Not at all. Some mistakes are understandable, like the Kasper decision at the end of the 2nd Test when it had to be slowed down and shown from many angles to prove that it wasn't out. The LBW against Katich is an example of a very poor decision which no International umpire should get wrong.

A couple of years ago Asoka DaSilva was coming in for an amazing amout of stick over similar decisions pitching outside leg. Since then, Aleem Dar has risen in people's eyes to a level where many rank him alongside Simon Taufel as the very best in the world (I certainly do). If he gets them wrong, anyone can.

[shaka]

I am always nervous when there is an LBW appeal and either Dar or Bucknor are umpiring.

[sqwerty]

Originally Posted by shaka

I am always nervous when there is an LBW appeal and either Dar or Bucknor are umpiring.

Bucknor is the most overrated umpire I've ever seen and I've been saying this for years.

If the appeal is loud and the crowd is louder he'll trigger you. Half the time he doesn't even know what the appeal is for.

[shaka]

104 tests as umpire. The last 20 of which have probably been too much.

[Arrow]

Originally Posted by luckyeddie

Do away with the front-foot no-ball law to give umpires an extra 0.2 of a second to focus, or better still automate the no-ball and allow the umpire to look down the pitch instead of at the ground then to have to hurriedly look up.

In this day and age i cannot BELIEVE that they have someone like the Umpire doing such a menial job, especially when it could easily be done automatically.
Especially when it takes away from their abilities to do other FAR more important duties like LBW.