LEAD STORY - CRICKET: Doubs surface on Hawkeye formula

ANENDRA SINGH
Who ever dubbed former New Zealand cricket John Bracewell ``the Mad Scientist' obviously hadn't considered the impact of technology on the gentlemen's game.
A gripping second cricket test between the Black Caps and the West Indies in Napier did peter out to a stalemate yesterday after five days of jousting but aftermatch tremors will still be felt for some time.
Many fans left McLean Park last night divided on the use of Hawkeye, snickometers and hot spots to assist umpires and players with dismissals, wondering if mad scientists were trying to sabotage the age-old game of leather on willow.
Whether the jury-like system will continue is inconclusive.
What is painfully obvious is the crowd is definitely engaging in the process and vociferous in its approval or disapproval of dismissals.
Also glaringly obvious is the shift of blame from the umpires on the pitch to the sanctum of a few faceless technocrats fiddling with three-dimensional black-and-white images based on missile-tracking technology.
Like an infectious disease, the technoitis has infiltrated into test matches from the abbreviated hit-and-giggle Twenty20 and one-day versions of the code.
So let's cut to the chase to the bare bones of Windies skipper Chris Gayle's almost-double century, Shivnarine Chanderpaul's ton and golden duck, Tim McIntosh's maiden century and the raft of wickets Jeetan Patel, Iain O'Brien and Fidel Edwards snared and you'll find slow-motion replay is what people will still be talking about well after that roast turkey is gone.
Forget that Black Caps skipper Daniel Vettori doesn't feel there's enough room for three spinners in the team, even if Kyle Mills seems conspicuous in his absence as a bowler. Suggesting another spinner to help ease Vettori and Patel's 95-over load seems as foreign as mooting the idea of ex-international Deepak Patel opening the innings with a new ball.
Let's overlook James Franklin's lack of pace and rhythm after an 18-month lay-off following knee surgery and why he has been rushed back into the Caps' fold when he should have been playing more first-class matches to be battle-hardened for international duties.
Enter Vettori on the more burning question: ``Was Brendon McCullum out?'
Emphatically no, Vettori revealed at the media scrum, claiming 15 of them were sitting under the Harris Stand and could see ``clear daylight' between McCullum's bat as the leather projectile whizzed past him on the TV replays.
Presiding South African umpire Rudi Koertzen had instantaneously put his index finger up to McCullum for a nick to keeper Denesh Ramdin off a Jerome Taylor delivery.
McCullum went to the TV umpire who vindicated Koertzen.
Fans, who throughout the day chorused players' lbw appeals, were now booing the decisions after TV replays showed no activity on the snickometer.
``I don't think that's the reason why the referral system was brought in. It was brought in to take away the obvious wrong. After the game, we saw two teams chasing victory and the system was used in a manner it was not intended for,' Vettori said.
``My report will say what I've said to you guys (journalists), that we need to rid the game of the obvious ones and we can only do that with one referral rather than get caught up in the fifty-fifties, taking the power out of the umpires' hands.
``Everyone involved in the game still wants the human element and not just all technology.'
Akin to the India-Sri Lanka series, he expected the New Zealand one to cough up a few ideas to tweak the system.
Going upstairs, Vettori said, meant one must have as much technology as possible.
``Hot spot seems to be the best one I've seen in my time and you couple that with the snicko (meter) and the naked eye and you would think you'd get the decision right.'
He accepted technology had fan appeal but he had his reservations, such as the time required to adjudicate.
``I think (TV official) Mark Benson's a fine umpire and has done a great job for a long time but, unfortunately, this one (McCullum dismissal) was clearly wrong.'
With Gayle again on the physio's massage table, Windies coach John Dyson echoed most of Vettori's sentiments. Dyson felt three referrals per innings were too many, creating a feeling of let's ``give it a go'.
``If the feeling about technology like snicko is that it's very good (then) I think there should be another two more give-ins to the (TV) umpire to make decisions. Sometimes the eye just doesn't pick up properly or the cameras don't pick up properly as well.
``It's not the technology that makes the decision because it's still in the hands of the umpires,' said Dyson, emphasising the decision ultimately came down to the field umpire who was reliant on the third umpire to edify him via technology interpretation.
Run-outs and stumpings were universally accepted but, conversely, what the crowd saw on TV was not what the umpire saw.
``That's a bit of a worry because if you are going to show it to the crowd then they are seeing something the umpire hasn't seen,' Dyson said.
``I don't think the crowd fully understands how it is supposed to be applied,' he said, adding the crowd's desire to interact via replays was prevalent in all major sport now.
As for all those old dogs who can't be bothered with new tricks, please knock yourselves out on the traditional scoreboard above if you want to know about the nuts and bolts of the innings.