England captain Ben Stokes’ recommendation of scrapping the ‘Umpire’s Call’ from the DRS and Hawkeye technology following England’s defeat in the Rajko Test didn’t go down well with most of the cricket fans and former cricketers.
It simply provided fodder to the Australian cricket websites and ex-Aussie stars. One of them, Brad Hogg, has asked Ben Stokes to just “stop whingeing” about the umpire’s call.
England were upset with the lbw dismissal of Zak Crawley in their second innings in Rajkot, where they lost by a huge margin of 434 runs. Following the conclusion of the match, Stokes and head coach Brendon McCullum spoke with match referee Jeff Crowe, demanding an explanation about the technology.
In the press conference, Ben Stokes said, “You just want a level playing field. The umpires have an incredibly hard job as it is, especially in India when the ball is spinning. My personal opinion is if the ball is hitting the stumps, it is hitting the stumps. They should take away ‘umpire’s call’ if I’m being perfectly honest.”
Brad Hogg blasts Ben Stokes over asking to scrap off umpire’s call
Speaking on his YouTube channel, former Australian leg-spinner Brad Hogg explained that the umpire’s call is necessary is ther Hawkeye because the technology is not 100 percent correct, and the umpire’s call is needed to account for the little margin of error in the technology. He mentioned that the umpire’s call rules are the same for both teams.
Hogg said, “For me, the more I think about it, the more I feel umpire’s call should be in there because the technology is slightly wrong. I understand it might have cost England at some important stage, but it could cost the opposition too. Stop whingeing about the DRS. It’s the same for both sides.”
Commentator Ian Bishop, an influential voice in cricket, too, spoke against Stokes’ suggestion. Bishop said that the batters will have to learn to live with the technology.
Ian Bishop tweeted, “The number of batters that carry on with a sense of righteous indignation whenever they are given out LBW & ball tracking shows the ball to be only clipping the stumps!! But we want to remove umpires call; OK then Batters will have to live with the consequences. Let’s go”
The fourth Test match gets underwat in Ranchi on Friday.
Also Read: Check IPL 2024 Schedule: CSK To Host RCB In Opening Match
