Nitin Menon throws light on the significance of umpire's call in the game

Nitin Menon, the youngest Indian umpire on ICC’s Elite Panel, has highlighted the importance of “Umpire’s Call” in the game while also explaining why the rule is needed. The umpire’s call is referred to when the teams review for LBW. In a situation where the umpire has ruled not out, even if the ball is shown to be hitting the stumps on review, the TV umpire has no right to overturn the decision.

The only consolation for the teams is that their review is not lost. The much-talked about rule of the game has become a major talking point once again after its limitation was seen again during the recently-concluded Test series between India and England. During the second Test of the series, India skipper Virat Kohli had lost his cool after his England counterpart Joe Root was given a reprieve after being trapped in front of the stump by Axar Patel.

After umpire Menon gave his decision in favour of the batsman, India went upstairs. But despite the replays showing that the off-stump was visible and the ball was going on to hit the middle of the stumps, Root was handed a lifeline because of the umpire’s call. There was more confusion surrounding the rule when Rohit Sharma was adjudged out in the fourth Test after two umpire’s calls. And as the debate over the controversial rule continues, Menon has weighed in with his views.

Nitin Menon on the importance of umpire’s call:

Nitin Menon explained the reason behind sticking with the umpire’s call. In recent times, several former players as well as umpire have urged the ICC to do away with the rule. Menon, however, believes that the umpire’s call should remain in the game because the Decision Review System (DRS) is not completely accurate.

“See, first of all, Umpire’s Call means regarding decisions which are very close, the decisions which are 50-50 which can go either way, goes with the call of the on-field umpire. It is not a completely perfect decision that has been overturned, so it is a 50-50 decision which can go either way, to the batting side or the fielding side. When we know that technology is not itself 100 percent correct, so that is when you need the Umpire’s Call,” said Menon as quoted by HT.

“When we know technology is not 100 percent correct, so whatever the on-field decision is given, since it is a very marginal call, so we will stick with the decision the on-field umpire has given. This concept needs to be understood by the general public because they are not aware of why Umpire’s Call concept is there in DRS. It is basically because it was a marginal call and 100 per cent technology cannot say whether it was hitting the stumps or not,” added Menon who drew praise from all over for his umpiring during the India-England series.