Former Pakistan captain Javed Miandad today supported ICC’s soon-to-be-introduced referral system, which allows players to appeal against decisions by on-field umpires.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) will put the system on trial at the Champions Trophy in Pakistan later this year, under which a team will have the right to make three appeals to the third umpire if they have doubts over a decision made by on-field officials.

Pitching in for the use of technology to reduce errors, Miandad said umpires were now more prone to go wrong as they made their decisions in a hurry. “With the number of mistakes increasing, I think this referral system is good for the game because one bad decision can turn a defeat into a win or vice versa for any team,” Miandad said.

“Any law that can reduce the instances of poor umpiring decisions and can make the game cleaner should be tried. I also feel the ICC needs to make umpires more accountable in some way.”

Zaheer Abbas also backed the referral system, saying that “batsmen also needed a slice of luck like the bowlers.”

Former Test wicketkeeper Rashid Latif said the ICC needed to do a lot more to ensure umpires performed consistently. “It is easy to say that umpires are human beings and can commit mistakes, but one mistake can deprive a team of victory or turn a victory into defeat. One poor decision can have a big bearing on the outcome of a match like we saw in Sydney,” Latif said.

... contd.