Tendulkar bats for technology

Master batsmans thumbs down to unconvincing referral system

Tendulkar was all for the increased use of ‘Hot Spot’ technology — which establishes the first point of contact of the ball — for making accurate decisions and taking off the pressure from the on-field officials.

“For the caught behind and all, the Hot Spot will come. Close in catches, again the Hot Spot will come. For the bowled you don’t need a machine, so only the leg before wicket decisions is what the umpire has to concentrate on,” Tendulkar said.

“It is tough for the umpires to watch no-balls and then see what’s happening in the front. For the basic line decisions you have to have to have a laser. Like in tennis you can call it with a machine,” he told India Today.

Tendulkar was impressed with the results of the Hot Spot technology and said it could also be used for making the bat-pad decision.

“We are still using technology for close catches. They should use the Hot Spot for the bat-pad decision so the main umpire has to only make leg before wicket calls. I’m quite happy with the Hot Spot because it establishes the point of contact,” Tendulkar said.
The prolific batsman though gave a thumbs down to the umpire referral system and also suggested that in a Test match instead of two, three-umpires should do the duty session-wise.

“I’m not particularly happy with the referrals because I’m not convinced of the angles (on television). I wasn’t happy when we first went through it,” he said, referring to India’s series in Sri Lanka in 2008.

Another suggestion, if taken seriously, would bring a lot of smiles on the umpires’ faces.
“Maybe we could have umpires doing a session each and so have three umpires for a game, so umpires do get time off also,” he said.