The Line of the ball - did it pitch outside the line of the leg stump,
The Height - would it have missed the top of the stump,
The Point of impact - when the ball did hit the batsman? Did it hit he batsman in the line of the stumps,
What was the batsman doing - was the batsman offering a shot.
The Length - How far down the pitch was the batsman
Where did the ball hit? The bat, the pad, both and if so; what was the sequence
Man or machine, adulterated or not, this is bloody too complicated a law to enforce without letting a few slip through. Its also a law that has to be enforced fairly quickly. And I am fairly certain, I have missed at least a few dozen data points that need to be assessed.
Now, of all the data points, I used to think that it is fairly easy to determine if the batsman attempted to play the shot or not. It seems fairly straight forward.
Until yesterday...
Gary Wilson playing for a fighting Ireland seemed to attempt to run a ball delivered by West Indian Darren Sammy to third man, but at the same time seemed to thrust his pad out as a first line of defense. At least that is how I saw it. So did Ashoka De Silva. When you thrust the pad out anything the batsman does behind the pad should be discounted.
As it happened the ball hit Wilson on his pads outside the line of the off stump, with the ball tracker predicting that the ball would have hit the stumps. The umpire interpreted the batsman's thrusting of the pad ahead of his intended shot as "offering no shot" and gave him out. The law says that the ball can He also stood by his original decision after reviews.
Now the Irish captain is speaking out against the decision. That's wrong.
But given how complicated the law is, I just feel the umpires need all the technology that can be made available to them and like a doctor have them order all the tests that he feels are needed, look at the results and make a decision.
How would we feel if we go to a doctor and ask him or her to prescribe a treatment, while the lab technicians look at the blood work, x-rays, MRIs and share it with the doctor only when the patient asks for a review.
