The hasty departure from Australia of English umpire Mark Benson has been portrayed in some quarters as yet another blow for the Umpire Decision Review System – a waffly title for what should be a simple concept.

Benson is said to have walked out of the Adelaide Test after complaining in private that the UDRS ‘just makes umpiring harder’. Throw in the comically bad application of the system at the start of the year, the reluctance of England and India to use it, and the disagreement over who should fund it, and cricket suddenly finds itself in familiar territory: a crisis.

And yet if the players and umpires are looking for someone – anyone! – to blame, they should start with themselves. The UDRS has been exploited and misused so appallingly, as well as blamed for everything from global warming to the credit crunch, you’d think unravelling the Duckworth/Lewis system without a calculator was a doddle by comparison.

The truth is, it couldn’t be simpler. A quick reminder: if a player thinks he’s been done an injustice and his side has one or both of its challenges per innings in hand, he can refer the decision to the TV umpire. And if the TV umpire sees clear evidence that the original decision was wrong, he can over-rule. Where, gentlemen, is the difficulty?

Problems have arisen not because – as romantics such as Dickie Bird believe – the on-field umpires have been stripped of their authority, but because both the players and the TV umpires have exceeded their brief. The ICC, in trying to deal with the kind of umpiring-induced bad blood that marred India’s tour of Australia in 2007-08, have made it clear all along that the UDRS is there to get rid of the howlers. And that is it.

If you believe howlers are a time-honoured and endearing part of the game, you will now be shaking your head. But if you believe cricket has a duty to its spectators and players to get as many decisions right with as little fuss as possible, you may think the eradication of Read more…

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Thanks to some great cricket from Australia and not so great stuff from England, I managed to grab a couple of extra days off last week. It gave me time to think about where we are going with the game as a whole. I think cricket is in pretty good health overall, but this is my six-point plan to make sure we keep moving in the right direction:

1. Fast-track umpires and raise their wages The standard of umpiring is as low as I’ve known it in 20 years. Yes, it is a difficult job and technology exposes any mistakes, but some of the performances in the Ashes series so far have been pretty ordinary. Players will accept that the odd bad decision gets through now and again. At the moment, there are just too many.

Of the present panel, Asad Rauf is pretty good and Simon Taufel isn’t bad. Rudi Koertzen has been a good umpire, but unfortunately his time has passed. Billy Bowden is inconsistent, which we saw at Headingley. I think Billy can be very good, but sometimes he gets a bit carried away.

Their attitude is crucial. Talking to players and having a friendly nature is imperative, not the “I’m the boss” schoolteacher approach of Daryl Harper — who is unpopular with players — and the attitude that they never make an error. Billy is another who cannot admit a Read more…

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