On just the second day of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020, the controversy arose due to an umpiring error which affected the result of the match.
KL Rahul led-Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) were at the receiving end as they were denied a run against the Delhi Capitals (DC) despite the batsman crossing the line. The square-leg umpire adjudged it to be a short run wrongly in the 19th over of the chase and it eventually cost KXIP the game.
Moreover, the fans and experts were left fuming over the fact that the umpires didn’t change his decision even after it was shown on the big screen. Many felt that the third umpire should have ve intervened and overturned the decision. However, the renowned cricket analyst and the commentator Harsha Bhogle has revealed the reason why the TV umpire didn’t intervene in the matter.
According to the rules, the third umpire cannot overturn the on-field umpire’s decision in terms of line calls, in this case, the short-run. While stating that, Harsha felt that in future, all the line calls should be adjudicated off the ground to minimise the errors. He was also of the opinion that the short-run decision could’ve been changed in Sunday’s game as there was clear evidence that the batsman had crossed the line and completed a run.
Here are his tweets:
As things stand, the 3rd umpire cannot over-rule the on-ground umpire. But in course of time I see every line call being adjudicated off-ground with a trained replay editor, not only the 3rd umpire, watching the output of all the line cameras.
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) September 21, 2020
In this case, it would have been prudent to change the score because the same batsman was on strike and the fielding team couldn't have changed tactics. Scores have been changed in international cricket in the past to rectify errors. Best time was between overs 19 & 20.
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) September 21, 2020
Meanwhile, Australia men’s assistant coach Trent Woodhill has labelled the incident as “poor” and said officials should ‘use the technology available’.
https://twitter.com/TrentWoodhill/status/1307745503505862656
“One short (run decisions) should always be instantly reviewed by 3rd umpire as the technology is readily available with cameras set up for ROs (run-outs) & stumpings,” he tweeted.
“Too much riding on results in IPL to have umpires determine outcomes when technology can overrule bad decisions that are obvious.”
