Batting icon Sachin Tendulkar recently interacted with cricket fans on the social media site Reddit, where he answered several questions on the game. In the process, he gave a little bit of happiness his fans and shared his wisdom on the game.
Having retired from international cricket in 2013, Tendulkar is actively following Indian cricket and world cricket. As of now, he is still the highest run-getter in ODI and Test cricket and the only cricketer to have played 200 Test matches and scored hundred international hundreds.
Virat Kohli at one point looked like he would be challenging Tendulkar’s tally of hundreds. However, now that he has retired from Test and T20I cricket, that looks like a distant dream. Joe Root, in the meantime, has climbed up the charts in Test cricket. He is now less than 3000 runs away from overtaking Sachin’s tally of 15921 Test runs.
Sachin Tendulkar's Response On Umpire's Call
In his interaction with Reddit, Sachin Tendulkar said that he wants to change the Umpire’s call DRS rule in international cricket. He gave an important reason as well as to why he wants to change that rule. He said that he wants to change the “Umpire’s Call” rule as often players have to go back to the dressing room being unhappy with the on-field umpire’s decision.
“I would change the DRS rule on Umpire’s call. Players have chosen to go upstairs because they were unhappy with the on-field umpire’s call. Hence there should be no option to go back to that call. Just like how players have bad patches, umpires too have bad patches. Technology even when inaccurate will be consistently inaccurate,” he said on a session of Ask Me Anything on Reddit.
This is not the first time that Sachin Tendulkar voiced his concern regarding changing this rule in international cricket. Back in 2020, he said that the “umpire’s call” rule should be eradicated as it has way too many flaws in it. He said that if the ball hits the stumps, it should be given out irrespective of how much of the ball hits the stumps.
“One thing I don’t agree with, with the ICC, is the DRS they’ve been using for quite some time. It is the LBW decision where more than 50% of the ball must be hitting the stumps for the on-field decision to be overturned. The only reason they (the batsman or the bowler) have gone upstairs is because they are unhappy with the on-field decision, so when the decision goes to the third umpire, let the technology take over; just like in Tennis – it’s either in or out, there’s nothing in between,” he had said in a video chat with West Indies legend Brian Lara.
Also Read: Sachin Tendulkar, Sunil Gavaskar Pays Emotional Tribute On Cheteshwar Pujara’s Retirement
What Is The Umpire’s Call Rule
There is still a lot of dilemma and enigma as to what is the “umpire’s call” rule all about. To an extent, it was made to give the benefit of doubt to the batsmen. The decision is made if there if inconclusive technological evidence. When less than 50 percent of the ball is hitting the stumps without touching the bails as per the ball tracker, that is when the third umpire rule’s it as “umpire’s call”. The teams, however, does not lose the review in the process. The decision has often seen on-field umpire’s make the wrong call and the decision is upheld on the basis of the “umpire’s call” DRS decision.
Also Read: 'I have to go back again...' Rohit Sharma's heartfelt message leaves fans emotional
