This Umpiring Business

New Zealand Listener, Volume 16, Issue 396, 24 January 1947, Page 10

This Umpiring Business

HESE Test matches are a grim affair. What with questioning of the umpires’ decisions from the stands, and suggestions that the umpires be changed in the middle of the series, and that in future we may have neutral umpires-Test cricket grows every day more like a U.N. conference. : We were taught at school (or we should have been) not to question the umpire’s decision. The lesson lasts with many. There was a man who received his death sentence in the prime of his powers. "I’m sorry," he said, "but I’ve never disputed the umpire’s decision, and’I’m not going to start now." Newspaper correspondents who are squealing about Australian umpiring may have been to good schools, by which I mean any good school, primary, "public," "county," or what you will. If so, what has become of their code? Has it been crushed out of them by the solemnity of the occasion, or have they played or watched too much village cricket? In either case they have lost their sense of humour. Roping Them In Umpiring’ is often incompetent and sometimes biassed. Roughly speaking, the lower you go in grades, the more likely are you to get one fault or other, or both. This goes for games generally. All sorts and conditions of men are roped in for cricket umpiring. There was, for example, an inexperienced vicar. "How’s that?" came the (first appeal. "How’s what?" "How’s that for leg before?" "What constitutes leg before?" A book of the rules was brought to the wicket, and after studying it for ten minutes, the vicar gave his decision. "Without the slightest hesitation I give him not out." In another match a spectator consented to stand, but said he didn’t know much about the game. "Oh, that’s all tight,’ replied the home captain. "We're fielding first, and all you have to do is when anybody says, ‘How’s that?’ say ‘Out.’ Later on, when we go in to bat, I'll tell you a little more." "Not out!" But next time he will be!" was a reply to an appeal. I know a man (a last wicket brought in to fill up fhe side and and a com-

plete "rabbit" ) to ‘whom the umpire made a similar remark on the quiet. Don’t be too sure that a soldier or a sailor won’t incline to mercy where a popular officer is concerned-or a vilager, asked to decide the fate of the squire or the squire’s son. "Our Combined Efforts" That lovable Vic-

torian, Dean Hole : _ (does anyone read him now?) defined the duties of an umpire as "Fairation

at all costs-with perhaps a little leaning towards your owm side." It was another Church of England clergyman who gave out this announcement in church: "Next Saturday our team play H (a neighbouring village). I shall act as umpire, and I trust our combined efforts may prove successful." The origin of this story, I hasten to add, appears to be Punch, but isn’t it possible Punch got it from life? Not for nothing did the MCC issue an instruction: "Umpires are appointed for each end not for each side." "Are we playing under the new rule?" asked a visiting captain of the home side’s umpire. "What new rule?" The Captain explained the new Ibw rule. "Noo rule, you call it? Why, I bin givin’ ’em out like that for nigh on sixty years!" Big Cricket These backslidings and incompetencies should not be taken too seriously. They are part of the fun of the greatest of games. But when you get up to big cricket, it is a fair assumption that the umpire knows his job and is quite ippartial. I don’t know how they choose umpires for Test matches in Australia, but does anyone suppose they don’t take a good deal of trouble to get the best man? In England old "pros" stand in county mate and are reported on ee ara everv season bv the

county. captains. This panel, I believe, supplies umpires for Test matches, and I do not recall any complaints about umpiring in these games. These "pros" are quite capable of standing up for themselves. A batsman _ remonstrated with one of them as he left the wicket. "Oh, not out, wasn’t yer?" was the reply. "Well, you wait till you see the

T evening papers." Wise players temper their annoyance with two considerations. One is that in

nearly every case, the umpire is in a better position to judge than the batsman, and the other that wrong decisions against a batsman are balanced by wrong de¢isions in his favour. Quite a lot of argument and some _ rancour would be saved if spectators would only reflect that they cannot possibly see what is happening as clearly as the umpire. Only one man can say with a reasonable amount of assurance whether a batsmar is out or not lbw, and that is the umpire. Yet one hears appeals from cover-point" and the slips, and Positive assertions afmong the crowd. You see the same thing in football. It is easier for a referee to make a mistake, but he is doing his best, and "nearly always he sees more of the game than his critics. It seems certain Bob Deans did touch the ball down in that famous match with Wales, but What of it? Was it necessary to keep that disallowed try alive with almost the care bestowed on a border feud? If I were a cricket captain, I would discourage general appealing. Only two men are in a position to appeal for a catch at the wicket or an lbw — the bowler and the wicket-keeper. In some sides (the Australians seem to be prone to it) there is apt to be a chorus of shouts, with uplifted arms. One might think it was a wool sale. Also I suggest that it is a proof of a man’s sportsmanship if he appeals only when he is pretty certain the batsman is out. There is a classit retort by the most famous _ of English umpires, "Bob" Thoms. A bowler kept on appealing for Ibw, and eventually, after a particularly outrageous "try-on," Thoms said: "Young man, when you bowls a wide, I'll say so." As for "neutral" umpires, whether it is cricket or football or tennis, the idea should be laughed off the map at once. Games are not an international dispute or the choosing of an American jury. Unfortunately, as things are going, there is more and more point in a remark by George Hirst, himself a Test player of renown: "There’s nowt like a game of cricket, lad. I said a game. Cricket was never made for any championship. . . Cricket’s a game, not a

competition.

A.

M.