UDRS and Neutral Umpires

[vic_orthdox]

An issue for a number of umpires on the international circuit is the constant travel, which isn't conducive to family life, and has been a contributing factor to losing some umpires at the top level.

In a series where UDRS is involved and in this modern era with all games televised and much more scrutiny upon umpires, do you think that you can return to having one home and one neutral umpire?

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Wouldn't have a problem with that. Would love Peter Willey umpiring england matches, such a waste to lose him from the elite panel.

 

[benchmark00]

An issue for a number of umpires on the international circuit is the constant travel, which isn't conducive to family life, and has been a contributing factor to losing some umpires at the top level.

In a series where UDRS is involved and in this modern era with all games televised and much more scrutiny upon umpires, do you think that you can return to having one home and one neutral umpire?

Don't doubt this is true.. but source? Not sure I know of too many umpires on the elite panel who have stepped down due to family issues. Might have been a couple, but don't really see it as a major problem.

And neutral umpires are necessary for perceived integrity of the game. Have no doubt every umpire would be fine with umpiring their home country, but even with DRS there is going to be dodgy umpires and it will take out the opportunity for someone to say 'home umpires' every time they lose.

 

[BoyBrumby]

That being so, why do we still get home umps for international limited overs?

I'd sooner have the best umpires, myself.

TBF we have some very good ones just now. The Ox has been impressive in the Pak/Eng series.

Bowden still wants eff off tho.

 

[vic_orthdox]

Don't doubt this is true.. but source? Not sure I know of too many umpires on the elite panel who have stepped down due to family issues. Might have been a couple, but don't really see it as a major problem.

And neutral umpires are necessary for perceived integrity of the game. Have no doubt every umpire would be fine with umpiring their home country, but even with DRS there is going to be dodgy umpires and it will take out the opportunity for someone to say 'home umpires' every time they lose.

Agree RE: the integrity, just wondering whether the UDRS would silence the calls a bit.

The travel factor is cited as being a major reason for a lot of the English umpires not taking up spots on the ICC panel, also the fact that they are better paid and there are more positions than for those in other countries.

 

[benchmark00]

That being so, why do we still get home umps for international limited overs?

I'd sooner have the best umpires, myself.

TBF we have some very good ones just now. The Ox has been impressive in the Pak/Eng series.

Bowden still wants eff off tho.

Because there's less importance placed on ODI's and they're more frequent?

 

[BoyBrumby]

Because there's less importance placed on ODI's and they're more frequent?

I agree, but using home umps seems unproblematic in two formats that some countries in particular enjoy. One country isn't backward in coming forward when unhappy with the state of things, so if the integrity was in question I bet we'd have heard about it.

 

[benchmark00]

I agree, but using home umps seems unproblematic in two formats that some countries in particular enjoy. One country isn't backward in coming forward when unhappy with the state of things, so if the integrity was in question I bet we'd have heard about it.

There's far more scrutiny placed upon umpiring decisions in test matches though, no?

 

[vic_orthdox]

Agree RE: the integrity, just wondering whether the UDRS would silence the calls a bit.

The travel factor is cited as being a major reason for a lot of the English umpires not taking up spots on the ICC panel, also the fact that they are better paid and there are more positions than for those in other countries.

Also, reckon I've heard Taufel speak about it before in an interview with Cricinfo.

 

[BoyBrumby]

There's far more scrutiny placed upon umpiring decisions in test matches though, no?

Probably, yeah. Certainly up here and down there. Other places seem to place almost equal importance on ODIs and tests tho. The 5-0 "revenge", etc.

 

[Furball]

It's an interesting point - with UDRS there's no reason for the likes of Aleem Dar not to get matches involving Pakistan.

 

[silentstriker]

This is utterly and absolutely a terrible idea. Can imagine what would happen if reviews run out. Plus umpires manage the game - why would you create controversies of favoritism?

I'd rather have a worse neutral umpire than a better home team one and a situation where a few critical decisions go the home teams way.

 

[Crazy Sam]

Does Simon Taufel live in the UK these days?

I don't mind the current system, as it takes one less suspicion out of the game when you have two 'neutral' umpires doing a test match.

What I don't like is that all the Aussie Elite Panel umpires usually seem to get allocated to other series when the home ODI series is on. For example, Simon Taufel is only umpiring two of the upcoming tri-series games, while Rod Tucker and Steve Davis are doing just one each. Part of the reward/incentive should be to get to do several home ODI's or T20I's as I'm certain these would be valued pretty highly by the umpires themselves (granted Steve Davis did a number of games in Aus before he was on the Elite Panel but the point remains).

It's interesting looking at the allocations over the past 12 months to see a number of umpires not on the elite panel getting experience in international series, and not just the smaller series either. It seems they are moving towards spreading the amount of travel out even further. Perhaps UDRS allows these second tier umpires to do more games as they have a safety net there now.


Edit: I must ask - is there any rhyme or reason to who gets allocated to be the TV umpire in tests and ODI's? Some series have home umpires perform this role, while in others it is someone neutral.

 

[Tricia McMillan]

I'd simply rather have the best umpires regardless of where they're from, but the ICC (amongst other sports governing bodies) wants to avoid the issue of officials being perceived as biased towards their home nation.

 

[Uppercut]

I'd have thought UDRS makes it less necessary to use home umpires, because their quality isn't anywhere near as important to consider.

 

[Agent Nationaux]

It will look really bad if the home umpire gets a wrong decision in favour of the home team. However it would be nice to have Aleem Dar instead of Doctrove.

Talking about umpires and DRS, has Taufel lost his touch. Had a terrible game. Or do you think he hasn't got used to DRS like the other umpires (the other umpires have realised how marginal the decisions really are).

 

[Cevno]

I certainly don't want a Indian home umpire officiating a Test match in India right now. The current lot who are nominated have been pretty poor in ODI's so far.

 

[sreeku7]

Why not have UDRS for every event in the cricket field and get done with on field umpiring

 

[Jono]

I'd have thought UDRS makes it less necessary to use home umpires, because their quality isn't anywhere near as important to consider.

Yeah that was the first thing that came into my mind.

 

[morgieb]

I still think that people will whinge if home umpires were re-introduced, particularly given that UDRS isn't played everywhere.