Personal View: Charles Randall
The Decision Review System has enabled the ICC to monitor umpiring decisions behind the scenes much more accurately. The results in 2015 showed that the umpires coped well under such pressurised scrutiny, and this was the best year since the start of electronic checking in 2012/13.
As an example, during the Ashes series in England there was apparently an average of 53 decisions per Test, with the umpires achieving 97.3 per cent correct. After the use of DRS the decisions improved a little to 98.9 per cent, though this was above the normal.
According to ICC's use of all available technology, three years ago umpires were achieving 93.8 per cent in all international matches, before DRS, and accuracy rose past 95 per cent in 2015, the highest yet recorded.
After DRS intervention players can now be sure of 99 per cent correct decisions, though in October the ICC issued a public reminder that the DRS was intended to “overturn clear mistakes made by the on-field umpires and not close calls”. Batsmen and fielders have started summoning DRS even when they know their chances are very slim. This can be simply to use up a day's allocation of electronic appeals, a habit that must distort the ICC figures a little.
A good dividend from DRS has been to encourage spin because batsmen cannot simply use their pads as a defence, a trend that must have added dozens of wickets to the England off-spinner Graeme Swann's haul in Tests.
Perhaps one indirect consequence has been the erosion of the batsman's benefit of the doubt, filtering down to club cricket. Robbie Book, in his charity booklet The Reluctant Umpire – full of good solid tips for players standing in as umpires – repeats the point over and over again: “It's all not out unless...”
Without the evidence of DRS, it is difficult to assess whether umpiring has improved at club level over the past 15 years or so since the start of ECB premier leagues. The likelihood is that standards have risen. Players might tend to disagree, but if they are correct, their attitude holds the key to the solution - namely their own behaviour.
Umpires might have a thorough knowledge of the Laws and might enjoy perfect days at decision-making, but the advance of leagues has almost guaranteed unpredictable behaviour on the field.
In the year 2015 there were some extraordinary incidents in recreational cricket. For example, in June a Wiltshire County League Division One game was abandoned when fighting broke out and a bowler needed medical attention after being knocked out cold by a punch.
The bowler happened to be Andrew Footner, 51, the well respected secretary of Beanacre & Melksham CC, and the police arrested the alleged perpetrator at the tea interval at Swindon Civil Service CC's ground at Penhill. Comments about a batsman obstructing the field had led to confrontation, and tempers rose as fielders became involved. The assailant, it was claimed by the Civil Service captain, made his peace with his victim with a handshake “like gentlemen”.
The violence was reported in the daily national newspapers, though subsequent events were not. It was perhaps regrettable that a person with an anger management problem at the age of 41 escaped with no more than a police caution. The league disciplinary panel banned the assailant for 18 matches, with four suspended, and banned Footner for four matches. Both clubs had 10 points deducted.
In August a disputed boundary led to a scuffle between a mass of players with tempers out of control during a Kent Village League Division Three game between Aldington and Detling.
An Aldington fielder thought he had saved a four with a dive, not realising the ball had passed under his body and bounced back off a boundary board. When the umpire Robert Wanstall signalled four, the fielder rushed in to remonstrate, and tempers boiled over as opposing players began swearing and shoving each other.
Wanstall told the Kent Messenger newspaper: “In 40-odd years I have never seen anything quite like it. It's not what you expect from a cricket match. There was no on-going rivalry between the two clubs - it just came completely out of the blue.” He said he checked with the other umpire that the ball had gone over the line and duly signalled. “The fielder assumed it hadn't gone for four and just saw red,” he added.
In September the Hampshire League disciplinary panel discussed a serious incident in Bournemouth involving two players of the same team fighting each other. In the early overs of a South West Division Four game between Bournemouthians and visiting Hordle Village the Bournemouthian opening pair had a violent argument apparently over the refusal of a second run. One opener was banned for 17 games for striking his team-mate. His target, the captain, was banned for eight matches for racial abuse, having just returned after a previous suspension. Though the assailant was retired out for six runs and his colleague was bowled soon after, Bournemouthians went on to pile up 291-4 off their 42-over allocation and they won a good game by 15 runs. Hordle just failed to snatch victory after an innings of 110 off 69 balls by Ed Baker.
Perhaps the worst incident of 2015 happened in Bermuda. An assault by wicketkeeper Jason Anderson during a club championship game in September was captured on youtube video. For reasons not entirely clear Anderson, a Bermuda international, seemed to wade in against batsman George O'Brien, throwing at least one punch – behaviour that earned him a life ban from cricket. O'Brien, eventually using his bat as a weapon, was wrestled to the ground and kicked in the face. He received a six-month ban.
These incidents simply serve to emphasise that the players, not umpires or DRS, make games.
The Reluctant Umpire by Robbie Book (The Club Cricket Charity: £9.99)