IPL 2020: Additional umpire to monitor no-balls a major possibility

What’s the story?

The newly-formed Indian Premier League governing council, in its meeting on Tuesday in Mumbai, took a step towards reducing umpiring errors by proposing an additional umpire to specifically monitor no-balls.

In case you didn’t know...

The umpires came in for enormous criticism during the 2019 edition of the IPL, with several captains voicing their discontent at the officiating decisions.

MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli in particular, were quite vocal as they weren’t pleased with a couple of umpires overlooking no-balls at crucial junctures in the match.

While Kohli showcased his rage after the game between the Mumbai Indians and the Royal Challengers Bangalore concluded, Dhoni inexplicably walked onto the field to confront the on-field umpires in the Chennai Super Kings’ encounter against the Rajasthan Royals at Jaipur.

The heart of the matter

In a recently concluded meeting, the governing council decided to bring in an extra umpire that would only be tasked with monitoring no-balls. The aforementioned official would be separate from the third and the fourth umpire that operate currently, thereby taking the tally of umpires to five.

A member of the governing council quipped that the technology would first be trialled in a domestic competition, before it could be implemented in a tournament of the stature of the IPL.

Moreover, with the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 set to start in a few days’ time, the BCCI was looking forward to exploring the enhancements the new piece of technology would bring to the table and how it would help increase the quality of the sport, in addition to making it less error-prone.

The move is in sync with what the ICC recently came up with, when the world’s apex cricketing body preferred trialling an additional umpire to cut out officiating mistakes from the game.

What’s next?

It would be interesting to see how the mentioned experiment goes, with regards to its viability and the advancement it would accord the game. If it works out though, it seems a shrewd idea, which could benefit all those involved on the field.

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