Sachin Tendulkar's glorious batting record in international cricket has always been marred with dubious (bad, to be fair) umpiring decisions.
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Sachin Tendulkar's glorious batting record in internationalu00a0 cricket has always been marred with dubious (bad, to be fair) umpiring decisions. And thanks to yet another such decision by umpire Gamini Silva during India's third one-dayer against Sri Lanka in Colombo yesterday, Tendulkar completed a hat-trick of unfair dismissals.
Though the decision has not eventually cost India dearly in any of the three occasions, such umpiring errors have again opened up the debate on the need to introduce umpiring referrals, something that the International Cricket Council has been experimenting in Tests recently in all forms of the game.
"I am always in for referrals," Delhi captain Aakash Chopra, who has also opened for India in Test matches, told MiD DAY yesterday.
"No batsman likes to be given out when he is not out. Though every batsman cannot appeal against a bad decision, I don't mind if we are moving closer to perfection with the current rules of referrals."
Former international umpire Piloo Reporter, however, did not completely agree.
"I think we should have referrals for all the Test matches in order to minimise umpiring errors, but for one-dayers I don't think it's necessary. A bad decision can cause great damage to a side in a Test, which is not always the case in one-dayers."
Reporter (70) blamed the introduction of the free-hit after a no-ball for yesterday's Tendulkar dismissal.
"With the introduction of the free-hit, I think these days the umpires concentrate too much on the front line of the crease not to miss a no-ball. This gives them lesser time to judge the line of the ball. And the umpires must always keep in mind that the white ball swings later than the red."
When the ICC introduced player referrals during India's Test series in Sri Lanka last year, India were at the receiving end and the team management and media went after the rule. Chopra said it was high time to decide what we really want. "When it didn't work for us, we started cribbing. Now we are asking for it. We need to decide what we really want."
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