Jayawardene, the T-totaller

Regarding the conversation, Jayawardene later said: “The reason behind these referrals is to see whether the umpire has made a mistake. In the space of time we have been given, I should be able to ask why he said not out. I needed to clarify why he said not out. I needed to know whether he had made a mistake. And that’s what I was doing.”

Wiser after watching the replay and getting the on-field umpire to reverse his decision, Jayawardene was of the view that an obvious umpiring error had been corrected. “Dravid was playing a sweep shot off a full ball, and if the umpire had another look at it, he would have given it out. That’s what happens with the referral system. It is all about obvious mistakes and the on-field umpire tells the third umpire to have a look at it. Not that the third umpire takes a decision for himself. There’s a conversation,” he said.

The incident brings to light a few areas of concern for the ICC in this experimental system. There happens to be no time limit within which a review can be sought. Besides, this referral gives an advantage to the bowlers since with a naked eye, no umpire would have given Dravid out who was stretched far too forward and fuller length made it tough to judge where the ball was pitched.