England v India, 7th ODI, Lord's

Dravid apprehensive on technology assisting umpires

Siddhartha Vaidyanathan at Lord's

September 8, 2007

In the heat of the moment, Rahul Dravid was extremely disappointed at his caught-behind decision © Getty Images

India were at the receiving end of two contentious umpiring decisions in the deciding match of the series but Rahul Dravid, their captain, didn't think present-day technology was good enough to aid umpires in all situations.

Both Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar were disappointed with their caught-behind decisions and stood their ground after umpire Aleem Dar raised his finger, but Dravid wasn't in favour of technology being used more often.

"I don't think the technology is good enough at the moment, especially for fine edges, snicks and lbws," he said. "It is for line decisions and I think there it should stay."

Replays were inconclusive with regard to Dravid's dismissal, suggesting that there might have been a faint edge after all. "I did not feel the snick at that stage," he said when asked about the Andrew Flintoff delivery that cut him in half before he had opened his account. "The technology showed that I got a snick and I have to accept it. May be they were right as I did not feel it at that moment because generally, you feel when you snick it. May be this time I didn't feel it. But I can't argue with snicko, can I?"

There were no doubts, though, about Tendulkar's dismissal. The bat did not make contact with the ball and television replays indicated that the bat had brushed the pad.

India's administrative manager Rajeev Shukla had earlier said that the team were planning to lodge a protest regarding umpiring standards in this series. "We'll lodge a complaint with the ICC about the decisions," Shukla was quoted as saying in PTI. Dravid was expected to furnish an umpires' report, as all captains do at the end of the series, and said he will convey his thoughts in that report.

England captain Paul Collingwood was satisfied with the overall quality of the umpiring despite the number of errors over the tour, starting from the Tests.

"I think overall the standard of umpiring has been pretty high," he said. "There's been some decisions that probably haven't been correct at times but we all make mistakes."

Siddhartha Vaidyanathan is assistant editor of Cricinfo

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