The Review System – the new development in International Cricket – has made a huge impact in the game. It has brought back that lost balance of bat and ball back in to the game. Batsmen earlier used to get some [MANY] benefit-of-the-doubt in their favor. Now, thanks to this new review system, that benefit-of-the-doubt has gone out of the batsman’s kitty. They look terribly exposed when the umpire give them out via a review [Case of Tendulkar comes to mind as i type this]
I dont think any batsmen will favor this new system, but they can thank it when an unseen edge deny them their hundreds and fifties. Another interesting aspect of this review system is that umpires will be under huge pressure if they begin to think about the over-rule of their decisions. So i guess umpires will have to take this review system as a correcting tool instead of a over-ruling tool.
One concern is, will in the future, number of LIFE which is now at 3 go up ? If that happens it will seriously hamper the flow of the game. Even now, every LBW decision making via review system takes atleast 4-5 minute to take effect. So authorities will have to keep a good view on the flow of the game before increasing the LIFE.
Indian team now is taking the brunt of this review system as Tendulkars, Dravids, Gangulys, and Laxmans are no longer getting the benefit of doubt and their STATURE is no longer coming to help them in a critical appeal against them. They will have to change their approach to batting – especially when they are facing Muralidharan and Mendis. Maybe they have to look at Zaheer Khan and Ishant’s batting technique to access how to play Murali and Mendis. Ishant and Zaheer were able to judge and play spinners easily while the big-HEADs were bamboozled by twin spinners.
Captains will have to be judicious in the use of Review System. In the on-going test series between India and Srilanka, Srilankan captain Jayawardene beats Indian Captain Anil Kumble heads and shoulders in the judgement of making a review. In fact, there were occasions when Anil Kumble looked pathetic in his judgement of making a review. Also, Sachin Tendulkar looked baffled when umpire gave him LBW as the review showed no inside edge.
All in all, cricket is going to be much more interesting to watch as the balance between bat and ball is restored to some extent
