Voges and Hales ‘wickets’ prompted no-ball trial

Two incidents this year of a no-ball being wrongly called and denying a bowler a wicket in a Test match were behind the ICC’s decision to trial handing the process over to the third umpire. Adrian Griffith, the ICC’s senior manager for umpires and referees, said that the ICC Cricket Committee had subsequently asked for the issue to be looked at and suggested it could be the next step in making the third umpire a specialist position.

In Wellington, where Doug Bracewell bowled Adam Voges, who was on 7 at the time and made 239, then at Lord’s, where Nuwan Pradeep did the same to Alex Hales, an erroneous call of “no-ball” by the standing umpire prevented the legitimate fall of a wicket – the latter sparking a protest from the visitors’ dressing room. It is to remove such occurrences from the game that during England’s ODI series with Pakistan over the next fortnight a system using fixed cameras and an electronic signal sent to the on-field umpires will be assessed by the ICC.

Informal tests of how the technology would work have been carried out during the English summer and it will now be put into action in live match situations, to assess the effect on the third umpire’s workload and to address any unforeseen issues before taking the proposals forward.

“The cricket committee this year said, we want to look at something to assist the umpires with calling no-balls, because we’ve had the two incidences where no-balls were called and a wicket has fallen – and you can’t reverse it,” Griffith told ESPNcricinfo. “The cricket committee has said we want to look at something and this is what we’ve put forward to look at. And …

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