TECHNOLOGY in Cricket – A boon or a bane?

There is no doubt that technology has evolved rapidly in Cricket in last 6-7 years with Hawk Eye, snickometer, Hot-Spot and all, but it is really complex to pass a judgment on whether it has been Boon or Bane for fairness of the game. It is impossible to answer it in black and white, I will say it is a Bane when we make technology a part of decision making in a match but it is really helpful for Cricket analysts and viewers. Let me put forward some points to support my argument.

Yes, technology has given so much to cricket analysts and to some extent to the viewers too in terms of understanding the nitty-gritty of game but it has taken away the most important aspect attached to any sport and that is the “Excitement”. The instant excitement of any umpire’s decision in your team’s favor in a critical phase of a match is beyond comparison. Apart from excitement taking a hit, the accuracy of these technologies are still not proven to even 90% satisfaction level, so why to compromise excitement of a game for something that is not even 90% accurate?

Now first take excitement part of the game , Imagine you watching a nail-biting chase by your opponent team in a World Cup Semifinal, Bowler bowls a good ball which hits the pad, umpire gives it out, then what will be your reaction if it would have been in 2003 World cup and in ongoing 2015 World Cup ? In 2003, you would have just zoomed off the Sofa or would have given fiery high-five to your mates, no? And what about in 2015?  Now you need to wait whether the opponent team has reviews left, if yes then you need to assess where the ball got pitched, what was its line and all. Where is the excitement now? Uncertainty and excitement in Cricket has taken a hit with DRS.

Now if you go with accuracy of these techniques, who can forget the Usman Khwaja’s controversial dismissal against England ? Umpire gave that out caught behind but Snickometer and hotspot showed almost nothing, and still 3^rd umpire upheld ground umpire’s decision. It was such a big controversy that even Australian PM had commented on it. This is not only one controversial DRS decision. There is Kevin Peterson’s caught behind wicket decision that showed evidence of edge in snickometer but not in HotSpot.

Here are Some of reactions on Decisions made through DRS :

I've just sat down to watch the test. That was one of the worst cricket umpiring decisions I have ever seen.
-- Kevin Rudd, Australian prime minister

DRS was introduced to eradicate the human howlers...humans are out to prove that no technology can eliminate human errors.

-- Aakash Chopra, former India batsman

So to summarize my arguments , it is good to have new technology as part of game but it is still not worth to make it a part of decision making in a match. Use it to give more elaborated analysis to viewers , use it to judge the performance of Field Umpires ,use It to make players get good sense about the decisions but unless something is really accurate , we should not use that to make decision in a match. Let the umpires who are the nearest people to the place where the event takes place run the show for time being.

This blog is part of Blogger Dream Team and It’s wonderful opportunity given by Blogmint to get noticed by one of the finest cricket experts currently in the World “Harsha Bhogle”.