Umpiring Matters - Soft Signals

Skipper calls for an end to 'soft signal’ rulings.

Daniel Brettig.

Cricinfo.

Monday, 22 January 2018.

PTG 2326-11751.

Australian captain Steven Smith has called for an end to the practice of on-field umpires offering a "soft signal" to the third umpire on disputed catches, arguing that technology should be arbiter in such cases as the immediate reactions of players in the middle have often proven to be flawed.

Smith was given out caught behind at a critical juncture of the third One Day International against England in Sydney on Sunday, edging low to wicketkeeper Jos Buttler who immediately celebrated the catch. On-field umpires Chris Gaffaney and Simon Fry then referred the catch to the TV umpire Kumar Dharmasena with the soft signal of "out", and while replays shrouded the catch in far greater doubt, Dharmasena did not deem it to be enough to overrule the initial impression of his colleagues.

In assessing the process, Smith said he felt that the umpires' signal was often dictated by the reactions - either celebratory or ambivalent - of players in the middle, and carried too much weight relative to the evidence provided by television cameras. He said he would prefer a system where the third umpire made a ruling based purely on the pictures in front of him.

"I'm not sure I'm a big fan of the ruling with the soft signal. That's obviously the ruling at the moment and it's hard to overturn anything”, Smith said. "We've seen a few this summer that have been pretty similar and if the fielder goes up and actually celebrates they usually get given out and if you're a bit apprehensive of what's happened they normally get given not out.  It's hard for them to overturn the decision. I'd actually like for the third umpire to have to make the decision whether it's out or not. Just them having to do it, if that makes sense”.

Smith made it clear he was not questioning Buttler's honesty: "He obviously thought it was out, he's a pretty honest guy, so he thought it was out and it got given out so I had to walk off”.

The soft signal was introduced for disputed catches in part because it was felt that two dimensional camera images and foreshortening often added doubt to catches that all on the field had considered clean, meaning too many were ruled not out as a matter of course. 

Former international umpire Simon Taufel has previously explained the reason for its existence by stating that umpires needed to retain the primary responsibility for decision-making.  He told the ’Times of India’in 2016: "It's part of the decision-making process. If the third umpire cannot find conclusive evidence to prove that the original on-field decision is incorrect, then it stands”.

"On-field umpires are there to make decisions and answer appeals, not simply to send them upstairs to the third umpire to take the call.  Decision making is an important skill and one that should be applied at the highest level of the game. So, the soft signal maintains the premise that the decision-making happens on field and not just left to technology to provide an outcome”.

Second Papua New Guinean makes ODI debut.

PTG Editor.

Sunday, 26 November 2017.

PTG 2311-11671.

Papua New Guineau (PNG) umpire All Kapa made his One Day International in Dubai on Friday in the match between his national side and Scotland, a month after his countryman Lakani Oala debuted in the reverse fixture played in Port Moresby.  Kapa, who debut at first class level last month, is to stand in a second such game starting on Wednesday in an Intercontinental Cup (IC) match between the United Arab Emirates and Afghanistan in Abu Dhabi.  Oala made his first class debut in an IC game between PNG and Namibia in October last year.

750th match for long-serving Tasmanian umpire.   

PTG Editor.

Friday, 24 November 2017.

PTG 2310-11669.

Tasmanian umpire Brian Pollard is to stand in his 750th match as a member of the Tasmanian Cricket Umpires and Scorers Association (TCUSA) this weekend in what is his 32nd straight season standing in Cricket Tasmania's (CT) Premier League competitions. Pollard, 76, who stood in his first Tasmanian Cricket Association game way back in 1985, continues to be rated highly by the selectors being regularly selected for second grade games.

His playing career involved many years with the Montagu Bay Cricket Club in Hobart as a batsman, and in the 1960s he and his batting partner established a record opening partnership of 208 in a suburban competition, a feat that still stands in the record books.  As the club's captain he led his side to several premierships and spent ten years on the committee there, his overall service being rewarded with Life Membership.  

Pollard took up umpiring in 1982 with the suburban association and stood in its matches for three seasons before moving over to CT's turf-based leagues.  Of his 750 Premier League matches, 240 have been at first grade level, equal to another long-serving umpire Don Heapy who is also still at the crease and last month chalked up his 700th game with the association (PTG 2281-11541, 19 October 2017).  The TCUSA award for the umpire judged as the best umpire in CT’s first grade competition is called the Heapy-Pollard Medal.

Pollard's higher-level service includes a "two hour stint" in a Sheffield Shield match when one of the on-field umpires fell ill.  He served for many years on the TCUSA management committee, his work in that role and as an umpire being acknowledged by the award of a TCUSA Life Membership in 2008.

Three Aussie umpires for first class debuts in same week.

PTG Editor.

Friday, 3 November 2017

PTG 2295-11601.

Three members of Cricket Australia’s (CA) second-tier Development Panel, Nathan Johnstone, Donovan Koch and David Shepard, are to all make their umpiring debuts at first class level within a week of each other later this month.  Shepard has been named to stand in a first class, day-night first class game between a CA XI and the England tourists at the Adelaide Oval which starts next Wednesday, Koch in a Sheffield Shield match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground five days after that (PTG 2280-11538, 19 October 2017), then Johnstone will stand in Townsville in a second four-day CA XI-England tour game, the latter side’s last before the opening Ashes Test.

CA has also appointed its four senior panel umpires, Gerard Abood, Simon Fry, Sam Nogajski and Paul Wilson to the opening three matches of England’s tour.  The first this weekend in Perth, is a two-day match involving a Western Australian XI and will see Abood and Nogajksi on-field with Steve Bernard the referee and Lance Catchpole and Sandy Wheeler the scorers.    The second, the day-nighter, will be umpired by Fry and Shepard and see Simon Taufel, CA's Match Referee and Umpire Selection Manager, make his first class refereeing debut, Mick Harper and Neil Ricketts being the scorers.  In game three in Townsville Johnstone will stand with Wilson, Bob Parry being the referee and Stephen Boyle and Gail Cartwright the scorers. 

Its been a long haul for Perth-based Johnstone, 37, who over the last ten years has been selected to stand in a total of six key national umpire pathway events, stood in over 20 state second XI fixtures, male Under-19 Tests, both mens' U-19 and Womens' One Day Internationals, plus five List A games in the period from 2010-12.  His umpiring career received a resurgence earlier this year with the award of a year-long Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) national officiating scholarship (PTG 2042-10347, 8 February 2017), then elevation to CA’s DP in June (PTG 2159-10952, 9 June 2017).

Shepard, 46, played a single first class game and six List A fixtures for Victoria in the late 1990s before moving to umpiring.  Over the last four years he has featured in one CA U-17, and three U-19, tournaments and stood in three state second XI matches in Perth, Sydney and Melbourne.  As a former first class player he was appointed to CA’s Project Panel in 2014 and its Emerging Umpires Panel, the predecessor to the now DP, in 2015, the same year he also was awarded an AIS scholarship (PTG 1513-7295, 3 February 2015).

South African born Koch, 41, who made his List A debut last month, has been on-field in a first class game before as he played 21 such games in his birth country in the period from 1997-2002, after that playing several matches in County Second XI competitions in England.  From 2009-12 he stood in the Yorkshire Premier League and then a range of Minor County and County Second XI three-day, one-day and Twenty20 fixtures.  A year after moving to Queensland in 2013 he was appointed to a CA Under-17 mens’ championship series, state second XI games, and in December 2015 a CA Under-19 championship at which he was selected for the final.  Soon after that he was awarded an AIS scholarship.

The appointments of the three DP members will mean that four of the six currently on that panel will have stood at first class level, the fourth being Darren Close who did so back in the 1980s in what was a different era of home state first class appointments.

Double review after third umpire muffs process.

PTG Editor.

Thursday, 2 November 2017.

PTG 2294-11596.

There was confusion during Wednesday’s opening India-New Zealand Twenty20 International in Delhi on Wednesday evening but eventually home side batsman Rohit Sharma was given out caught behind but only after a double review.  Sharma played at a ball delivered by Trent Boult and wicket-keeper Tom Latham appealed for a catch.  On-field umpire Nitin Menon, after conferring with his colleague Chettithody Shamshuddin, gave the soft signal of out but asked for  an 'umpire referral’, apparently in regards to the possibility of a bump ball.  

International Cricket Council third umpire review rules says that "in determining whether a delivery was a Bump Ball", the third umpire "shall first check the fairness of the delivery… ...and whether the batsman has hit the ball”.  In Sharma’s case third umpire Anil Chaudhary looked at the replays but not the ‘Ultra Edge’ feed, and as a result advised Menon that “bat hit the ground” and that the call should be 'not out’.  

Menon signalled that, however, New Zealand captain Kane Williamson, who was convinced about the edge then took a player's review and the entire process was repeated, this time with all the proper tools.  Therefore when ‘Ultra Edge' came up, there was a clear spike when the ball passed the bat.  The on-field decision had to be reversed and Sharma was given out.

Top-tier SACA PL debut for first female umpire.

PTG Editor.

Saturday, 28 October 2017.

PTG 2290-11578.

Eloise Sheridan will make history on Sunday when she becomes the first woman to stand in a South Australian Cricket Association (SACA) men’s first grade Premier League (PL) match in its 144 year history. Sheridan, 32, becomes the third women standing at PL first grade level in Australia this season alongside Ashlee Kovalevs in Perth and Claire Polosak in Sydney (PTG 2287-11563, 25 October 2017).

The schoolteacher told local media she not anticipating any problems with players when she stands with South Australian state umpire panel member Craig Thomas in the one-day match between Glenelg and Southern District at Glenelg Oval.  She said she “actually found the men to be really nice to me”.  “They’re better behaved towards me than they are to any of the men I’ve umpired with.  It’s a big opportunity so I’m a bit nervous, but it should be all good.  Whatever I can do to help women in cricket, I’m happy to be a part of”.

Sheridan started playing for SACA's Northern Districts club at the age of 12 and later had a stint at the Sturt club before helping Kensington win the 2013-14 women’s first grade premiership.  When the former state junior wicketkeeper’s aching knees ended her playing career prematurely she looked for another way to remain involved in the game.  “I thought about umpiring, did a few games and then got hooked”, she said.  “It can be really nerve-racking, particularly if a team is very good at appealing.  But even if I know someone is out, taking my time to make that decision and making sure I’m calm in that decision-making has been really helpful for me”.

A vocational education teacher, Sheridan has risen very rapidly through the umpiring ranks - in fact after just 11 matches in the mens’ PL competition - another indication of the priority cricket in Australia is giving to female officials.  She started with one SACA mens’ PL fourth grade match last December and finished the 2016-17 season with six further games in the thirds.  In the lead up to her first grade debut she will have been on-field in four PL second grade games.

In Sydney, Manjinder Sandhu, another female umpire, stood in a Sydney Cricket Association PL fifth grade game earlier this month bring to ten the number of women known to be standing in men’s PL fixtures so far this summer.   Apart from her, Michelle Evans and Polosak in Sydney and Kovalevs in Perth, Melbourne has Sarah Fishley, Brisbane Karen Naylor, Canberra Deanne Young and Margaret Marshall, and Adelaide Mary Waldron and Sheridan.

Three Indian umpires reach the 50 first class match mark.

PTG Editor.

Friday, 27 October 2017.

PTG 2290-11579.

Three Indian umpires, Ulhas Gandhe, Belur Ravi and Umesh Dubey, have all stood in their 50th first class matches in Ranji Trophy series games in the past week.  Gandhe, 42, who played 37 first class and 25 List A games for Vidarbha between 1993 and 2005, debuted as an umpire in a first class game in November 2006, something Ravi, 51, did way back in December 1991 at the age of 26, and Dubey, 54, in November 1999.   Much more recently, their colleague Chirra Ravikanthreddy, 36, made his first class debut in late September in a tour match between the Indian and New Zealand ‘A’ sides.  He then proceeded over the next three weeks to chalk up another three in the on-going Ranji Trophy series.

500 game umpire driven by a sense of fair play.

Kate Withers

Latrobe Valley Express.

Thursday, 26 October 2017.

PTG 2289-11571.

Adrian Fairley's love affair with cricket began in 1956 when he started playing with the Traralgon High School and Ex Students A grade side in Gipplsland, 160 km east of Melbourne.  Sixty years on, Fairley has amassed a slew of playing awards but it's his umpiring resume that really stands out, for last weekend the 75-year-old Traralgon resident took to the field as an umpire for the 500th time.

Players from the Centrals and MTY Raiders Traralgon and District Cricket Association (TDCA) B grade sides formed a guard of honour for Fairley in a show of respect for his years of service and the astonishing milestone.  "It has been a real privilege to be involved with the game of cricket during these last 60 years, both as a player for 28 years and now as an umpire for 32 years”, Fairley said.  "I didn't expect anything special to happen [at the game] because it might be a milestone but you're not doing it for that, you're doing it because you like being involved with cricket”.

The retired school teacher has umpired across all grades of cricket and likened officiating the game to commanding a classroom.  "We came to the conclusion that between you, the school and the kids, you knew the rules. I encountered a few tough kids over the years but in general it was okay”, he said.  "There have been several occasions when I have had to caution players for unsporting like behaviour and on a couple of occasions I've reported players.  Poor behaviour both on and off the field of play is unacceptable but I haven't had too much criticism over the years”.

Fairley's no-nonsense approach to officiating the game has made him a widely-respected figure in Gippsland and beyond and he was awarded a certificate of appreciation by Cricket Victoria for more than 50 years service to the game.  Despite the accolades and decades of experience, Fairley said there are still times he questions a call.  "Sometimes you think 'did he hit that?' but we haven't got any of the review systems that the major games have so you've just got to give it as you see it”, he said.  "We're not perfect and we make mistakes but the spirit of the law is that players accept the decision and get on with the game”.  

A life member of the TDCA and Traralgon and District Umpires Association, Fairley first got in to umpiring out of a sense of obligation.  "When I retired from cricket back in 1983 I decided to join the umpires because there was a major shortage”, he said.  "My knowledge of the laws and bylaws was adequate but after attending special meetings there was still a lot for me to learn.  I have come to realise that having respect [for] all players, umpires and officials is an extremely important aspect in conducting a game of cricket”.

After 32 years Fairley has grown to love his spot on the field and has no desire to hang up the hat any time soon.  "I have come to appreciate that standing behind the stumps is the best place to see the game of cricket”, he said.  "I still enjoy umpiring and I will continue to umpire for the remainder of the [current] season and hopefully beyond”.