Umpires and DRS techs should work together

New Zealand

The Decision Review System comes in for a lot of criticism when something goes wrong during a third umpire's decision, but the system's developers are frustrated by the ICC's limited protocols.

The DRS developers would like the third umpire and the DRS operators to work together, because the DRS techs, as it stands, cannot advise the third umpire at all, even though they ave access to much more footage than the ICC allows.

This was evident during day four of the first Test in Dunedin, when New Zealand batsman Tom Latham was given not out on an LBW appeal. Sri Lanka reviewed it, and the decision stood, as the third umpire did not have more information. 

But other footage, which the third umpire was not allowed access to, showed that Latham had hit the ball, and the not out call was correct after all. So the DRS is not the problem, they feel, but rather what information the officials have.

Animation Research chief executive Ian Taylor said on stuff.co.nz: "He (the third umpire) doesn't talk to anyone in this room. No one in this room can talk to him, and that's the problem.

"We think the third umpire should be part of the DRS team. Then he can come in and check all this to make sure he's happy it's working properly.

"Then he knows our guys, he calls up and goes 'give me camera three'. Give me Hot Spot'.

"If you were in this room when there's an appeal, these guys would have a result for you within six seconds.

"We think the third umpire needs to be a specialist who understands the technology and who should be actually sitting in our room.

"We should answer to him and our operators should be ICC accredited so they're part of the umpiring team."

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