Technology in Sport

I had an interesting chat with the inventor of Hawkeye last night. In case you don't know, Hawkeye is the device that cricet is using to show where the ball would have travelled had it not hit a pad or bat in cricket. Commentators and players are asking for Hawkeye to be used for LBW desisions as, they feel, umpires are making too many mistakes.

Obvioulsy, the inventor of Hawkeye thinks that technology should be used in the game wherever it can. The TV people love technology as it adds value to thier broadcasting. In fact, to be a TV commentator these days, asll you have to do is comment on Hawkeye and how bad the umpires are performing. Wait, you also need cool comments like, "crack", "take that" and "what a shot."

But I digress.

I seem to be one of the few people left that think technology has no space in any game unless it is a new one. For example, Pro 20 cricket. The game is only a few years old and there Hawkeye and other technology is a great idea. As for test cricket, forget it. Part of the game is the umpire. They were there when the rules were written down and they must stay. Keep technology out of the game. That includes graphite bat, Ricky Ponting...

Baseball is based in one of the world's most technologically advanced countries and they still use umpires to make the final calls. They might have a fight or two when the manager of the side doesn't like the call, but that's the game. Even NFL only use TV replays in an extreme case and then only when called upon by the coach and then the coach only has a few times he is allowed to do it.

My pont is that if a bowler bowls wides all day because he is having an off day, he gets dropped. It was his fault that his team lost. Same thing for umpires. Keep not doing well, get droppped or fired.

Use Hawkeye and other toys to make the bland TV coverage better, but it should not dictate the game in any way.