7 historic moments that revolutionized the game of cricket

#4 Video replays and the third-umpire

Video-replays looked to render consistency in decision making.

Since our earliest recollections of competitive televised Cricket, the outcome of on-field duels lay solely in the hands of the duo clad in white and black. The adjudicators or umpires, as the game prefers to call them, possessed the all-important fore-finger in the sport. With a flick of a wrist to brandish the “dreaded finger”, they could end a career and alter the course of the game, if not signal the very end of it.

The pressure of holding center stage notwithstanding, the umpires had the envious yet arduous task of making split second decisions while bearing the full onslaught of thunderous appeals from warrior like fielding units. Packed with all the cricketing wisdom, they rendered verdicts – some splendid and some atrocious. To err is human and the umpires were only mere mortals. And in time, although we accepted that mistakes were bound to be made, we clamored for consistency.

But all that changed in 1992 and those constantly aggrieved, players and umpires alike, were handed a lifeline. India’s tour of South Africa in 1992, the first to the country by a recognised non-white side, was already a momentous one.

Adding to the significance of the tour - billed as the “Friendship series” - was the introduction of video replays to aid on-field decision making. And when a run-out appeal against Sachin Tendulkar in the first Test was referred, we learnt the existence of the now ubiquitous “third-umpire. Karl Liebenberg ruled Tendulkar “Out” and unleashed the era of video-replay aided decision making in Cricket.

The move was mostly welcomed while some expressed concerns citing possible over-reliance on the part of the umpires to leave decision making to the replay watching third-umpire. The crowds however, buzzed with excitement while awaiting the verdict – often relayed by the flashing of a green light to signal a dismissal.