ICC meeting highlights | 'Umpire's call' to continue; Women's U-19 WC postponed

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has said that the ‘Umpire’s call’— an issue that has mounted the controversies around the Decision Review System (DRS) will stay in regulations. 

After a virtual meeting of the ICC Cricket Committee, its head and former Indian captain Anil Kumble said “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,” and “Umpire’s Call allows that to happen, which is why it is important it remains.”

However, the committee has not overlooked the need to change and has approved some amendments in the currency prevailing protocols.

The committee has empowered fielding captains to ask the on-filed umpire about their views on batsmen’s intent of playing a shot before deciding for the DRS call. 

Notably, under current regulations, the on-filed umpires are empowered to reserve their views within themselves till the captain goes for the DRS call or the stipulated period of 15 seconds to go for the review to get over.

There have been many incidents of umpire’s calls in recent months that have ignited the debate on the margin that hawk-eye considers before ruling the balls missing or hitting the stumps. Now, to help bowlers, the committee has mandated to lift the height margin of the wicket zone to the top of the stumps This in turn should create uniformity in impact, both in terms of the height of the delivery and the width of the stumps.

In the third amendment, the committee has asked the third umpire to ensure a relook of any short-run call adjudged by the on-field umpires and correcting before the next ball will be bowled.

The ICC Cricket Committee has not given in the demands of players such as Virat Kohli and Shane Warne, who have been staunch critics of umpire’s calls and rather ruled in its favour saying that it protects the human angle of the game.

Women’s game

The ICC Cricket Committee also made some changes with respect to the Women’s game. 

The committee has approved the removal of the ‘discretionary 5-over batting powerplay’ along with approving to settle a tied match by the super over method.

The committee also ruled that the Full Member Women’s teams will be permanently awarded the Test and ODI team status. 

Apart from the amendments in the playing conditions, Mel Jones from Australia and Catherine Campbell from New Zealand have been inducted as Full Member representatives on the ICC Women’s Committee.

ICC Events

Citing the wrath of the Covid-19 pandemic, the ICC Women’s Committee approved the postponement of the inaugural edition of the ICC Women’s U19 Cricket World Cup scheduled for later this year in Bangladesh. Now, the tournament will be played in January 2023.

Along with the U19 World Cup, the ICC Women’s Committee has approved postponing the global qualifier for the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2022, to December 2021.

Along with delaying global tournaments due to pandemic, the committee allowed teams to carry as many as 30 players, seven more than currently approved 23, to global tournaments due to isolation and quarantine protocols they are supposed to follow.