UDRS should be made mandatory

Richard Dwight

The twenty20 carnival clashes and the 'one dayers' both of which for the said moment are interesting, to provide the excitement and thrills, is however not the surest way of assessing the strength of the teams or its respective players.

This is where the long drawn out game played over five days, mainly differ. For it is through the long duration of the game does enable to guage to a larger extent the ability of the team and its players. It's played against the rigours and exacting demands of '5 days' cricket and so quite rightly referred to as 'Test' cricket.

Apart from the twenty20 and the 'one dayers', quite a number of test cricket is played around the world amongst the ICC approved in test playing countries.

From this follows that much responsibility is thrust on the umpires, where decision-making becomes too acute.

The game has become far too competitive and played with much intensity. So much so, when appeals are made to the umpires against batsmen, they do err to be erratic. So in order to assist the field umpires, the third umpire accommodated in a room in the stands came into being. And so when an appeal is made and the field umpire, is indecisive, he could seek the assistance of the third, who in turn would rule the batsman, whether he is out or not out.

Australia and England, be it cricket or otherwise are well established, while in India there is a yell of hero or god. All this must surely have a commanding impact on the field umpires, to make decisions difficult.

In circumstances such as this, good many batsmen have easily gone past the 170 mark frequently. It is pertinent to stress that when regular batsmen make large scores, the ball would have struck the pads 5 to 7 times or more of which 2 to 3 hits on pad could be out.

But the umpire negatives the appeals and carries on. In the recent first Test match between Pakistan and Sri Lanka, the umpires were not satisfactory. In prevailing circumstances, the Umpires Decision Review System (UDRS) should be made mandatory.