Sharfuddaula’s Decision to Dismiss Smith Sparks Debate
Jamie Smith was batting in England’s second innings in the Perth Test today. Australia’s debutant pacer Brendan Doggett bowled the first ball outside the leg stump in the 28th over. Smith pulled. As soon as the ball was delivered to Australian wicketkeeper Alex Carey, Carey appealed for an out. Australia took a review after on-field umpire Nitin Menon did not respond. The onus of deciding whether Smith, who had scored 15 runs, was out fell on Bangladesh’s Sharfuddaula Ibn Shaheed, who was in charge of the TV umpire.
Smith started walking towards the dressing room as soon as the first footage of the incident was shown on the stadium screen. He probably felt that the ball had hit the bat. He stopped before Sharfuddaula made a final decision. After examining the sneaker footage for at least five minutes, Sharfuddaula asked Nitin Menon to change his decision. In other words, he declared Smith out. Sharfuddaula’s decision was not well received by the England fans in Perth. Many were seen expressing their anger in the gallery.
Not only that, the live coverage of the match by the British media outlet The Telegraph said about Sharfuddaula’s decision, ‘It’s ridiculous. There was no evidence to support this decision. It’s not certain. If the technology doesn’t work properly, it should be a decision on the field. But he took only five minutes to change his decision.’
BBC Sport commentator and reporter Henry Moeran wrote on his X handle, ‘Smith’s gait suggests he may have hit the ball (bat). But this is not enough to make a decision. Maybe the technology was not properly coordinated. But if the TV umpire based his decision on this information, then England’s anger is quite natural.
Let’s find out what exactly happened.
ESPNcricinfo’s live commentary says that Smith made a sound while playing the pull shot. Travis Head, who was standing at short leg, and wicketkeeper Carey’s appeal for out also indicated that they heard a sound as the ball passed the bat. In the first footage of Sneaky, Smith saw a ‘spike’ (a wave sign indicating the ball hitting the bat) as it passed under the bat and started walking towards the dressing room. But he stopped walking when the frames of the footage did not match up properly on the screen.
The question then arose: when Sneaky’s footage showed the wave sign, did the ball hit the bat or not? Or was it very close to the bat? The ESPNcricinfo commentary says that the side-on replay did not seem to show the ball being near the bat. Sharfuddaula then zoomed in on the footage to try to understand the matter. He then confirmed that the ‘spike’ came from the bat, which means the ball hit the bat. Sharfuddaula overturned Nitin Menon’s decision and declared Smith out.
According to a commentary in The Telegraph, former Australian cricketer and coach Darren Lehmann believes Smith was not out. Former England spinner Phil Tufnell, who gave commentary for Australia’s ABC radio, also did not like Sharfuddaula’s decision, “That’s a light word – you can’t call it a spike. One rule for one person, another rule for another. Remember the decision of not out in the first innings? Is that enough to change the decision? It’s not a spike. Travis Head may have sneezed or something else! I don’t think there is enough evidence here to change the decision. If it takes this long to make a decision (then it is not an out), Labuschagne was in the same situation, and then the umpire said he did not see enough evidence.’
Simon Taufel, a former five-time ICC Umpire of the Year and one of the best umpires of all time, gave his expert opinion on Sharfuddaula’s out decision on Australian media channel Channel Seven. This Australian thinks Sharfuddaula’s decision is correct.
Taufel said, ‘This problem arises when we use two types of edge detection (technology to confirm whether the ball has hit the bat or not) technology around the world. We mainly use Hawk-Eye Ultra Edge. Australia is one of the few countries in the world that uses Real-Time-Snico (RTS). With limited experience, it is difficult to understand how to use RTS in a series (during umpiring). But according to the final evidence principle of RTS, if a spike is seen for up to one frame even after the ball has crossed the bat, then it is considered final evidence. And that’s exactly what happened in this incident.’
Toffel further explained, ‘Unfortunately, he (Sharfuddaula) didn’t want to make a decision as quickly as he had to. And the people on the track (RTS people) tried their best to show him (the footage), slowed it down, even rotated it. In my opinion, the right decision was made. If (the ball) crosses the bat and shows a spike after one frame, the batsman is definitely out.’
After England were all out for 164 in the second innings, Australia set a target of 205 to win. Whatever the result in Perth, it is safe to say that Sharfuddaula’s decision will be debated for days.
