Great Test match. Loved every minute. Anderson, Bell & Pietersen being the pick for me form the England players. And Cook deserves some recognition for some great slip work this morning. For the Aussies- i was impressed with Agar, Siddel & Haddin. Think both will change their teams before the next Test.
I still follow the cricket but don't watch it like I used to as a young 'un. Partly because I refuse to pay for sky. But from what I've seen, all this technology has only been detrimental for the game. Referrals, hot spot, hawkeye, snicko, gaydar, seems it's just led to more controversy than there ever was when the umpires decision was final.
It has lead to more controversy but i think its increased correct decision by about 5-10%, theres a case study on a cricket blog somewhere will go and find it. The key for me is we want more decisions right so why not have DRS? It gets more right than wrong.
You are no doubt right. But as an armchair fan I preferred the old ways. There may have been more wrong decisions, but there was more respect for the decisions. It may well all be for the best in the long run, when the powers that be work out how to best utilise it all. But right now they are a long way from getting it right. A bit shambolic at times I could say.
Someone made a good point on 5live that having the limited number of referrals means that often a team that wins is the team that 'plays their jokers' most effectively. Might aswell get rid of the umpire and just have the technology.
I suppose technology has to be accepted, but some of the decisions that can now be made are way beyond any umpire's human capabilities. A lot of the technological wicket decisions would have fallen within an umpire's 'grey area' previously and therefore the benefit of the doubt would have gone to the batsman. This makes it hard to compare current player's records to players of the past, because with the aid of technology most bowler's wicket hauls would have increased while most batsmen's run records would have been reduced. Obviously you can say sometimes a wrong decision goes in favour of the bowler, but mostly it's the other way around.