When technology spoils the game

Well, the first Ashes test finished today. It was very exciting and came down to the wire. After lunch on the last day, Australia needed only 20 runs while England needed only one wicket. The excitement built as the Aussies batted here and there, reducing the required runs to 15. Then the English queried a catch behind. The umpire said it wasn’t out but the English wanted to make sure. They used their final referral. The ball was deemed to have hit the bat on the way through and was therefore a catch. The batsman was out, England won.

That’s fair enough. We have technology to tell us these things but, boy, it was a bit of a damp squib. When a game is so close, like this one turned out, you want something dramatic to happen. For instance: The final batsman bats his heart out or the bowler rips the stumps out of the pitch with the best ball of the day. You don’t want a bit of hi-tech wizardry declaring the winner.

I think it ruins the spirit of the game. After all, the umpires are also part of the contest; their decisions can be good or bad and can affect it either way as well. It has been said, countless times, that umpires get them wrong for both sides (in both ways) so it hardly seems right to have the technology.

I think it’s only helpful to have it for other, less serious levels of the game but test cricket should remain sacrosanct and technologically free. Besides everything else, it makes the umpires doubt their own skills, forcing them into inaccurate decisions.

And then, for reasons known only to the people who determine these things, the English bowler James Anderson was awarded man of the match. Okay, he took ten wickets which is a great achievement and he consistently bowled well but can his game seriously be compared to Ashton Agar’s maiden test match? Almost a century and a few wickets? Or is there some unwritten (or maybe written) law that the man of the match can only come from the winning team?

I don’t feel that technology should be part of major sporting events. We managed for centuries without a computer telling us who won or lost; back when it was all about beating an opponent and being the best at something. These days it just slows it down and ruins the atmosphere.