ADELAIDE, Australia (CMC/IANS) – Former Test umpire Daryl Harper, who was forced into premature retirement earlier this year in the West Indies, said India’s ludicrous refusal to use the game’s electronic eye is a calculated move to preserve a successful approach to over-appealing that is neutralised by technology. The veteran Harper, who was pushed into premature retirement after being criticised in the first Test between West Indies and India at Kingston, said India is holding the World to ransom while a weak International Cricket Council fails to enforce mandatory adoption of a Decision Review System wanted by other Test nations.
“The ICC is doing no controlling and the rest of the world is being held to ransom,” he told the Adelaide Now weekly.
“The man on the street is asking how can the ICC allow this to continue. If you get one wrong in this format it can’t be rectified. It is a ludicrous situation which makes every situation magnified. It is very frustrating.
Australian Harper retired from the ICC elite panel after 95 Tests and 175 One-day Internationals last June.
He felt the Indian cricket board’s argument that the technology isn’t foolproof is a lowest common denominator argument.
“The technology is not 100 per cent accurate, but it never will be,” he said. “It is not perfect, but it is a step in the right direction.”
Harper recalled the circumstances during the series with India in the Caribbean, where he was publicly criticised by Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
“In the pre-tour meeting with the West Indies manager, coach and captain, they were very concerned that the excessive appealing by the Indians was influencing the umpires and that cricket wasn’t being played in the best spirit of (the game),” he said.
“I told them we would be vigilant and what happened in the first Test? One of the fieldsmen charged at least 13 metres down to my colleague Ian Gould demanding a bat-pad catch be given. I reminded Dhoni that he was responsible for his team’s behaviour, but he didn’t want to acknowledge this.”