'Get them off': Test legend's radical plan to fix Ashes 'farce'
Kerry O'Keeffe has made a radical suggestion to rotate umpires through roles each day in Test matches to ease fatigue and improve the standard of decision making.
The former Test leg-spinner's suggestion of rotation comes after Australia's opening Ashes Test win at Edgbaston, a match also notable for the number of incorrect decisions by the umpires in the middle.
Joel Wilson and veteran Aleem Dar had a combined 10 decisions overturned, with the former equalling the record (eight) set by India's Sundaram Ravi and Sri Lanka's Kumar Dharmasena.
That was a good (though annoying, obviously) game of Test cricket, turned into a farce by two inept umpires. #ENGvAUS #Ashes #bbccricket
— Paul B (@Sedona_Red) August 5, 2019
The umpiring in this first Ashes test has been atrocious. Again this morning two incorrect lbws which weren’t even borderline. The review system doing its job, the umpires less so. Not just today either.
— Phil Williams (@PhilWilliams) August 5, 2019
Joel Wilson. One of the worst umpiring performances I've genuinely ever seen #bbccricket #Ashes
— Mark Crossley (@markcrossley) August 5, 2019
In the wake of the torrent of criticism that the umpires received from fans on social media, Aussie Test legend O'Keeffe has weighed in on the issue.
"Umpire tiredness is a factor. Why don't we pick four umpires and rotate them?" O'Keeffe said.
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"The players get tired late in the day ... and these guys (umpires) are making errors (so) get them off the pitch after an hour-and-a-half and put them in front of the (DRS) screen," he told The Back Page on Fox Sports.
O'Keeffe also said barring umpires from standing in matches played by their home country, designed to maintain neutrality, was an outdated rule.
"It's such an old school theory now, that they'll be biased," he said.
"Not anymore - there's too much electronics."
Wilson (Trinidad and Tobago) and Dar (Pakistan) are two of just five members of the International Cricket Council's 12-strong elite panel of umpires who can stand in an England-Australia match.
But O'Keeffe said relaxing the rules to allow for home umpires would mean highly regarded Richard Kettleborough (England) and Bruce Oxenford (Australia) would be eligible to umpire in the Ashes series.
"The bottom five are in charge of this series - they're going to make mistakes," he said.
Wilson gave Joe Root out lbw twice in the opening session of the day, but was forced to overturn both after DRS reviews.
Root immediately reviewed both decisions and third umpire Chris Gaffaney overturned them.
The first from a James Pattinson delivery showed the ball was sailing down leg side.
The second proved Root had inside edged Peter Siddle's in-swinger onto his pads and once again Gaffaney reversed the ruling.
"He's had a difficult game Joel Wilson, a number of errors," said former England skipper Michael Atherton.
"Some have been more forgivable than others.
"The two lbws this morning are poor decisions.
"It's like playing to a certain degree. You feel in form or out of form, or do you lose confidence during a five-day game when the bad decisions start to add up?
"He's only human, so he'd definitely be feeling that."
Dharmasena, who will be the third umpire in the third and fourth Tests and in the middle for the final Test at The Oval, had eight decisions overturned in a match between England and Bangladesh in Chittagong in 2016.
With agencies
