‘Completely wrong’: Five-year history behind Ben Stokes’ push to abolish Umpire’s Call

The Decision Review System was introduced to international cricket nearly 15 years ago, yet it remains a source of frustration for players and fans.

The ICC has updated and tinkered with DRS technology several times over the last decade, but players still aren’t satisfied, with England captain Ben Stokes the latest cricketer to demand change.

Following last month’s Test match against India in Rajkot, Stokes called for Hawkeye’s ‘Umpire’s Call’ feature to be removed altogether, arguing if the technology predicts a delivery will clip the stumps, it should be out regardless of the on-field decision.

“My personal opinion is if the ball is hitting the stumps, it is hitting the stumps,” Stokes said on Sunday.

“They should take away umpire’s call, if I’m being perfectly honest.”

Former Australian captain Aaron Finch echoed his remarks on ESPN: “I think it should be scrapped.

“You need to have technology that’s either good enough or don’t use it at all. Having two decisions that can be out or not out and both are right is just ridiculous.”

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Currently, if Hawkeye predicts that less than 50 per cent of the ball is hitting the stumps, the on-field decision is upheld, creating a scenario where the same delivery has a different outcome depending on the umpire’s verdict.

However, due to incomplete information, the ball’s trajectory after impact on Hawkeye technology is a prediction, not factual information. In reality it provides an estimated course of trajectory based on data gathered from cameras stationed nearly 100 metres away.

Courtesy of several factors, including missing frames and crumpled pads, there is a margin of error. Technology can be fallible, as shown by this controversial moment from Quetta Gladiators’ three-wicket victory over Islamabad United in the Pakistan Super League last week.

As explained by William Edwards, the cricket operations manager for Virtual Eye, which provides Hawkeye technology for Fox Sports, the ball-tracking technology does not account for swing movement after impact.

“It’s a prediction,” Edwards told Fox Cricket.

“What we provide we believe is extremely accurate. In perfect tracking conditions, we trust our data 100 per cent.

“The issue is you can’t predict swing of the ball.”

Edwards also revealed that computer crashes, fielder positioning and faulty cameras can impact Hawkeye’s post-bounce data, but these factors have become less of a concern over the last few years.

Scrapping the umpire’s call feature in Hawkeye would have drastic consequences for the sport; in Australia’s eight most recent Test matches, for example, there would have been nine additional LBW dismissals.

During the Boxing Day Test against Pakistan, for example, Australian all-rounder Mitchell Marsh was on 25 when Pakistan called for a review after Hasan Ali appealed for an LBW shout. Marsh survived after Hawkeye suggested the ball was only clipping the edge of leg stump, ultimately top-scoring for the Australians with 96.

If the umpire’s call was abolished, Test matches would be considerably shorter because the prevalence of LBW dismissals would increase considerably. The dimensions of a set of stumps cover 252 square inches, but that figure rises to 450 square inches when the ball’s diameter is added on all three sides.

“You need the umpire’s call,” former England captain Nasser Hussain told Sky Sports in a clip that circulated social media last month.

“It’s not there to back up the umpire; it’s to give the margin of error for the technology.

“Umpires will give virtually everything out because they think it will be clipping, and we will have more two-day Test matches.”

Ironically, Stokes has been one of the leading beneficiaries of umpire’s call in the Test arena. Between October 2017 to January 2021, the England captain was handed six reprieves due to umpire’s call in Tests, adding a further 272 runs following the non-dismissals.

During the third Test against South Africa in January 2020, Stokes was on 2 when an umpire’s call verdict denied Proteas spinner Keshav Maharaj an LBW dismissal, adding a further 118 runs and combining with Ollie Pope for a 203-run partnership.

Meanwhile, Stokes must have forgotten his most recent Test innings on Australian soil when claiming that “if the ball is hitting the stumps, it is hitting the stumps”. During the 2022 New Year’s Ashes Test at the SCG, Cameron Green produced a delivery that thudded into Stokes’ off stump, but the bails were miraculously unmoved as the ball ricocheted towards the slips cordon.

A couple of years earlier, following his famous century during the 2019 Headingley Test, Stokes claimed the Hawkeye technology was “completely wrong” when Australian spinner Nathan Lyon trapped him on the pads in the penultimate over of the match.

DRS technology was introduced to rid the game of howlers — thick inside edges onto the pads, deliveries pitching several inches outside leg stump, balls sailing comfortably over the bails. Hawkeye was designed to eradicate gross injustices, while umpire’s call confirms the on-field official did not make an obvious mistake.

“The principle underpinning DRS was to correct clear errors in the game whilst ensuring the role of the umpire as the decision-maker on the field of play was preserved, bearing in mind the element of prediction involved with the technology,” former Indian spinner Anil Kumble, head of the ICC’s Cricket Committee, explained in April 2021.

“Umpire’s call allows that to happen, which is why it is important it remains.”

The fifth Test between India and England gets underway at Dharamsala’s Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium on Thursday, with the first ball scheduled for 3pm AEDT.