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<div class="itg-mosimage"><amp-img src="https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.dev?url=https%3A%2F%2Fakm-img-a-in.tosshub.com%2Fsites%2Fmedia2%2Findiatoday%2Fimages%2Fstories%2F1998August%2Fman-sml_082412032244.jpg" alt="" height="425" width="650" class="" layout="responsive"></amp-img><div class="clicktoenlarge"><a href="#" target="_blank" rel="dofollow">Click here to Enlarge</a></div><p>He was named after an apostle and a saint but John Patrick McEnroe at his vocal best was just an Irish ruffian. Not since Muhammad Ali told the world "I am the greatest" has there been a sporting phrase as resonant as McEnroe yelling at umpires "you cannot be serious".</p><p>There was an explanation for it too, as his biographer Richard Evans wrote: "(He) was screaming out for the freedom to try and play this magical game to his own level of perfection, without the hindrance of errors and stupidities from fools with rules who didn't know how to implement them."<br><br>Dr Ali Bacher, head of the United Cricket Board of South Africa, is a diplomat, in his dapper suits the very antithesis of McEnroe. But after the umpiring turbulence that shook the recently-concluded England vs South Africa Test series, he might have privately endorsed Evans' tirade against "fools with rules". </p><p>After the fourth Test, Allan Donald said umpire Mervyn Kitchen had a "shocker". In the fifth Test the ritual of bizarre decisions endured, prodding South Africa towards defeat. Said Bacher to INDIA today, "Since 1991 when we returned (to Test cricket) I can't remember a series that precipitated such umpiring controversy." Human error was altering history.<br><br>Competition is bloody these days, a replay of the Christians versus the Lions with an umpire in-between. The commercial stakes of victory are rising too. So questions arise: Are players pressuring the umpires? Is technology the only answer?<br><br>The umpire was once a sage in a white coat. These days, depending on the potency of the beer available in the' stands, he is considered either visually impaired or has bias swimming down' his arteries. Television is the match-stick that lights this passion. </p><p>The slow-motion replay magnifies incompetence. Umpire Srinivas Venkatraghavan doesn't like it. "I've even told commentators I've made a decision in a fraction of a second. Don't watch four slow-motion replays and then decide. You too must commit yourselves immediately."<br><br>Players are not pretty either. If churlishness is the modern metaphor for sport, cricket is no exception. Players have always attempted to deceive umpires. As Rowland Ryder writes in his illuminating book <i>Cricket Calling:</i> "W.G. Grace once played and missed and one of the bails fell on the ground. 'Windy isn't it?' said WG and jovially replaced the bails. 'Yes,' said the umpire, 'But I'm not. You're out'." </p><p>But the amiable banter of those gentler times has gone. As Steve Bucknor, West Indian umpire, told <i>The Times</i>, London, "The emphasis is to win, win, win at all costs. Appeals are planned and they think if they make enough noise they will force the umpire, who is only human, into a mistake ... It's not correct. In actual fact it's cheating."<br><br>In golf, to move one's ball is blasphemy - it ensures disqualification and chastisement from the fraternity. In cricket, character has flown. Few batsmen walk, for honesty is expensive. In the Chennai Test against Australia this year, this correspondent questioned an Indian player who took a close-in catch that was off the pad, but found his vehement appeal upheld by the umpire. </p><div class="itemcenter"><amp-iframe height="62" title="" width="320" sandbox="allow-forms allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-top-navigation allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation" allowfullscreen src="https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.dev?url=https%3A%2F%2Fakm-img-a-in.tosshub.com%2Fsites%2Findiatoday%2Fbanner%2Fpreferred-source-new.html%3Fv%3D1.014%5Cu0026native%3D1" class="mrBt15 preferred-source-banner"> </amp-iframe></div></p><p>Immoral? "Everyone does it," was the answer. Appealing is instinctive, it adds to cricket's flavour. It is also, says Amrit Mathur, former Indian team manager, "allowed within the laws of the game". Yet, when fine leg rises to endorse lbw appeals, the law is being perverted; when Nayan Mongia, like a wound up toy programmed to appeal every 30 seconds, is not subdued by team bosses, it is disenchanting. <br><br>Since imperfection will always exist and umpires will slip again into error, tempers will not stop flaring. Technology could be the solution. <br><br>At the Sports Science Institute in Cape Town, Professor Tim Noakes, his mind bursting with a cacophony of ideas, is busy experimenting with technology to construct the infallible umpire. "Audio," he suggests, "can be used even now." His method is uncomplicated. The stump microphone already provides information, it's a question of distilling it. By studying wave forms - like on an electrocardiogram printout - it is possible to determine whether the ball hit the bat, glove or pad. </p><p>"The sound waves," he explains, "will be different for each." The computer spits out the information immediately; then the third umpire, looking at the video, can check whether there is a wave when the ball passes a batsman's bat. A wave means a snick. "It could help," says Noakes "with caught-behinds or lbw decisions when there has been an inside-edge on to the pads."<br><br>For five years, Noakes has held in his heart an even more ambitious idea: tracking the cricket ball in motion, studying its behaviour in flight. There is something delightful about the eccentric scientist in the laboratory coat, studying not molecules but reverse swing. But he is no frivolous man: by monitoring the ball's velocity and direction precisely, he believes he can provide a method to judge LBW decisions.<br><br>By using four specially-designed cameras to provide a 3-D image, he says the computer could accurately calculate the ball's trajectory. "The third umpire would know in a second or less. The replay would show him where the ball would have ended up if it hadn't hit the pad. And he could have replays from any angle because the computer can rotate the image instantly." </p><p>The software exists, but the cameras - in which the ball moves 2 mm between frames instead of the normal 3 cm - are beyond his budget. Each costs $120,000 (Rs 50 lakh), and unless a cheaper version is made, it is an idea commercially unviable. Not everyone is convinced though. "Wickets behave differently, balls take off at different speeds, some balls turn and some don't, can all this be gauged?" asks Mathur. Noakes says yes. </p><p>There is trepidation too that umpires will become redundant. "In soccer they don't use replays to judge a trip in the penalty area," says Venkatraghavan. "The LBW is part of the umpire's basic powers." The idea of a cold, precise, impersonal game is cause for further alarm. As commentator Harsha Bhogle says, "It's more pleasant to be sent packing by a human than a machine." Indeed, there is an illicit thrill to intimidation, to watch players bully an umpire - staring down a robot is no fun.<br><br>Yet, sport has always romanced technology, an affair that endures. Robots test soccer balls and aerodynamic javelins are designed on computers. Error too has been eradicated. Once humans judged who won gold, silver and bronze medals in swimming and running races, a job now left to computerised timers. </p><p>Tennis too attempted an electronic system to replace linesmen; it failed but net-cord judges have been replaced in some tournaments by electronic sound-machines. Bacher puts cricket's case in neat perspective: "We should utilise the advance of modern technology, but we don't want umpiring robots. We have to find a balance." What he's leaving unsaid is, at present, that balance doesn't exist. <br></p><div id="tab-link-wrapper-plugin"><div class="authors__container"><div class="authors__by"><div class="authlable">Published By: </div><div class="authdetaisl">AtMigration </div></div><div class="published__on"><div class="authlable">Published On: </div><div class="authdetaisl">Aug 24, 1998</div></div></div><div class="sendros">--- ENDS ---</div></div></div>

sport

Sport

<div class="itg-mosimage"><div class="itgimage"><img  title=""  class="" alt="" src="https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.dev?url=https%3A%2F%2Fakm-img-a-in.tosshub.com%2Fsites%2Fmedia2%2Findiatoday%2Fimages%2Fstories%2F1998August%2Fman-sml_082412032244.jpg" loading="lazy" /></div><div class="clicktoenlarge" style="width:200px;margin-right:15px text-align:center" valign="bottom"><a href="#" onclick="javascript:window.open('https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.dev?url=https%3A%2F%2Fakm-img-a-in.tosshub.com%2Fsites%2Fmedia2%2Findiatoday%2Fimages%2Fstories%2F1998August%2Fman-lrg_082412032244.jpg','window','status=no,resize=no,toolbar=no,scrollbars=no,width=600,height=567'); return false;" rel="dofollow">Click here to Enlarge</a></div><p>He was named after an apostle and a saint but John Patrick McEnroe at his vocal best was just an Irish ruffian. Not since Muhammad Ali told the world "I am the greatest" has there been a sporting phrase as resonant as McEnroe yelling at umpires "you cannot be serious".</p><p>There was an explanation for it too, as his biographer Richard Evans wrote: "(He) was screaming out for the freedom to try and play this magical game to his own level of perfection, without the hindrance of errors and stupidities from fools with rules who didn't know how to implement them."<br><br>Dr Ali Bacher, head of the United Cricket Board of South Africa, is a diplomat, in his dapper suits the very antithesis of McEnroe. But after the umpiring turbulence that shook the recently-concluded England vs South Africa Test series, he might have privately endorsed Evans' tirade against "fools with rules". </p><p>After the fourth Test, Allan Donald said umpire Mervyn Kitchen had a "shocker". In the fifth Test the ritual of bizarre decisions endured, prodding South Africa towards defeat. Said Bacher to INDIA today, "Since 1991 when we returned (to Test cricket) I can't remember a series that precipitated such umpiring controversy." Human error was altering history.<br><br>Competition is bloody these days, a replay of the Christians versus the Lions with an umpire in-between. The commercial stakes of victory are rising too. So questions arise: Are players pressuring the umpires? Is technology the only answer?<br><br>The umpire was once a sage in a white coat. These days, depending on the potency of the beer available in the' stands, he is considered either visually impaired or has bias swimming down' his arteries. Television is the match-stick that lights this passion. </p><p>The slow-motion replay magnifies incompetence. Umpire Srinivas Venkatraghavan doesn't like it. "I've even told commentators I've made a decision in a fraction of a second. Don't watch four slow-motion replays and then decide. You too must commit yourselves immediately."<br><br>Players are not pretty either. If churlishness is the modern metaphor for sport, cricket is no exception. Players have always attempted to deceive umpires. As Rowland Ryder writes in his illuminating book <i>Cricket Calling:</i> "W.G. Grace once played and missed and one of the bails fell on the ground. 'Windy isn't it?' said WG and jovially replaced the bails. 'Yes,' said the umpire, 'But I'm not. You're out'." </p><p>But the amiable banter of those gentler times has gone. As Steve Bucknor, West Indian umpire, told <i>The Times</i>, London, "The emphasis is to win, win, win at all costs. Appeals are planned and they think if they make enough noise they will force the umpire, who is only human, into a mistake ... It's not correct. In actual fact it's cheating."<br><br>In golf, to move one's ball is blasphemy - it ensures disqualification and chastisement from the fraternity. In cricket, character has flown. Few batsmen walk, for honesty is expensive. In the Chennai Test against Australia this year, this correspondent questioned an Indian player who took a close-in catch that was off the pad, but found his vehement appeal upheld by the umpire. </p><div class="itemcenter"><iframe scrolling="no" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" width="100%" height="62" awidth="320" aheight="62" amplayout="fixed" src="https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.dev?url=https%3A%2F%2Fakm-img-a-in.tosshub.com%2Fsites%2Findiatoday%2Fbanner%2Fpreferred-source-new.html%3Fv%3D1.014" class="preferred-source-banner" loading="lazy"></iframe></div><style>.preferred-source-banner{  margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom:10px;}</style></p><p>Immoral? "Everyone does it," was the answer. Appealing is instinctive, it adds to cricket's flavour. It is also, says Amrit Mathur, former Indian team manager, "allowed within the laws of the game". Yet, when fine leg rises to endorse lbw appeals, the law is being perverted; when Nayan Mongia, like a wound up toy programmed to appeal every 30 seconds, is not subdued by team bosses, it is disenchanting. <br><br>Since imperfection will always exist and umpires will slip again into error, tempers will not stop flaring. Technology could be the solution. <br><br>At the Sports Science Institute in Cape Town, Professor Tim Noakes, his mind bursting with a cacophony of ideas, is busy experimenting with technology to construct the infallible umpire. "Audio," he suggests, "can be used even now." His method is uncomplicated. The stump microphone already provides information, it's a question of distilling it. By studying wave forms - like on an electrocardiogram printout - it is possible to determine whether the ball hit the bat, glove or pad. </p><p>"The sound waves," he explains, "will be different for each." The computer spits out the information immediately; then the third umpire, looking at the video, can check whether there is a wave when the ball passes a batsman's bat. A wave means a snick. "It could help," says Noakes "with caught-behinds or lbw decisions when there has been an inside-edge on to the pads."<br><br>For five years, Noakes has held in his heart an even more ambitious idea: tracking the cricket ball in motion, studying its behaviour in flight. There is something delightful about the eccentric scientist in the laboratory coat, studying not molecules but reverse swing. But he is no frivolous man: by monitoring the ball's velocity and direction precisely, he believes he can provide a method to judge LBW decisions.<br><br>By using four specially-designed cameras to provide a 3-D image, he says the computer could accurately calculate the ball's trajectory. "The third umpire would know in a second or less. The replay would show him where the ball would have ended up if it hadn't hit the pad. And he could have replays from any angle because the computer can rotate the image instantly." </p><p>The software exists, but the cameras - in which the ball moves 2 mm between frames instead of the normal 3 cm - are beyond his budget. Each costs $120,000 (Rs 50 lakh), and unless a cheaper version is made, it is an idea commercially unviable. Not everyone is convinced though. "Wickets behave differently, balls take off at different speeds, some balls turn and some don't, can all this be gauged?" asks Mathur. Noakes says yes. </p><p>There is trepidation too that umpires will become redundant. "In soccer they don't use replays to judge a trip in the penalty area," says Venkatraghavan. "The LBW is part of the umpire's basic powers." The idea of a cold, precise, impersonal game is cause for further alarm. As commentator Harsha Bhogle says, "It's more pleasant to be sent packing by a human than a machine." Indeed, there is an illicit thrill to intimidation, to watch players bully an umpire - staring down a robot is no fun.<br><br>Yet, sport has always romanced technology, an affair that endures. Robots test soccer balls and aerodynamic javelins are designed on computers. Error too has been eradicated. Once humans judged who won gold, silver and bronze medals in swimming and running races, a job now left to computerised timers. </p><p>Tennis too attempted an electronic system to replace linesmen; it failed but net-cord judges have been replaced in some tournaments by electronic sound-machines. Bacher puts cricket's case in neat perspective: "We should utilise the advance of modern technology, but we don't want umpiring robots. We have to find a balance." What he's leaving unsaid is, at present, that balance doesn't exist. <br></p><div id="tab-link-wrapper-plugin"><div class="authors__container"><div class="authors__by"><div class="authlable">Published By: </div><div class="authdetaisl">AtMigration </div></div><div class="published__on"><div class="authlable">Published On: </div><div class="authdetaisl">Aug 24, 1998</div></div></div><div class="sendros">--- ENDS ---</div></div></div>

Whether pressure from players and television or plain incompetence, bizarre decisions mar the game. Only technology may provide the perfect umpire.

India Today

Man or machine? - India Today

Bizarre decisions mar cricket, technology may provide the perfect umpire

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Man or machine?

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Bizarre decisions mar cricket, technology may provide the perfect umpire

Whether pressure from players and television or plain incompetence, bizarre decisions mar the game. Only technology may provide the perfect umpire.

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