Referral System-The Need Of The Hour

Well the umpire referral system which was put into trial in the recently concluded India-Sri Lanka series was thought to bring about some relief to cricket fans, players and also prove a more accurate means of providing justice to the teams and the game of cricket.But,its really sad that the system never got scaled up to a bigger level despite some ugly decisions, especially the one in the Sydney test between India and Australia that is still afresh in people's minds.Its really confusing to guess as to what the ICC is upto.What does the ICC want?When things like a super sup were in place for almost a year or so,and the rule of an extended power play , a free hit that was derived from the T20 cricket and the match being reduced to 20 over to declare a team as a winner (previously 25 overs) which was not a necessity is still ruling cricket.

Are the umpires the heart and soul of a cricket match?Aren't umpires bound to make any mistakes in decisions?The ICC bought some smiles on the faces of the players atleast after so much fuss that went on for decades altogether,that the ICC introduced the referral system.But,god knows what on earth stopped them from continuing the same.If not all,atleast some decisions like the caught behind, lbw and run outs could have been given a second chance.For these decisions are more likely to be misread by umpires.I wish theses referral system had been introduced long back by taking umpires to be humans and not gods altogether.

The very first test series involving India and Australia-the Border Gavaskar Trophy has seen as many as four wrong decisions.A caught and bowled off Kumble to Ponting,a leg before turned down by Pakistani umpire A M Saheba, the leg before of Ponting that was found missing the leg stumps and Matthew Hayden's caught behind.Does the ICC consider even these many decisions that took place in a single day as a human error?

With all these happening in the very first day of play, it would be fantastic to watch out for what all miracles would happen in the remaining four days.An amazing feat being that these things happen mostly in an Australia-India series, and most in test matches involving Australia.If the referral system is not re-introduced into test matches (not to forget the other forms of cricket also), the game of cricket will not be between 22 players divided between two teams,but between only two umpires.Then, would be similar to boxing or any other 1:1 game.Ha ha ha..