Anil Kumble Reveals Reason Behind Recommending One More Review

Anil Kumble, the ICC Cricket Committee head, has revealed the reason behind recommending one more review. Recently, ICC Cricket Committee decided to ban the usage of saliva to shine the ball however they have given a green signal to sweat. This move has drawn mixed emotions from the cricket pundits but the safety of the players is of utmost importance for the ICC and no compromises can be made there.

Amongst the recommendations, the ICC Cricket Committee has also suggested to add one more review to the team’s tally of DRS (Decision Review System). Kumble has explained that as travelling amid the Covid-19 era will be an issue, there could be a case when local umpires would be given preference and the elite ICC umpires might not travel for overseas series.

Travelling of elite umpires may not be possible – Anil Kumble

It is well known that the local umpires might not have adequate experience of umpiring at the International level. Thus, there are chances that there can be errors on umpire’s part and hence it is recommended to add one more review so that the teams can breathe easy.

Currently, there are two reviews in the Test fold whereas there is a solitary review in limited overs formats. In fact, we all know the importance of having reviews under the bag as an umpiring blunder can be the difference between win and loss. Subsequently, it is a good suggestion which has been put forward by the Cricket Committee.

Kumble recalled that the concept of local umpires was taken away 20 years back as it was noted that partiality had come into the game.

Anil Kumble has come up with a good suggestion.

“I think the need of hour was to start cricket. We also felt that because of travel restrictions, there could be quarantine measures. You don’t have too many elite umpires in the panel. So, we felt that for cricket to kickstart, its best to use local umpires. Most countries don’t have the experience, the local umpires don’t have the experience of a Test Match or being part of a Test match. The reason that we started neutral umpiring 20 years ago was because there was the perception of a bias,” said Kumble on Star Sports show Cricket Connected.