Rahul Dravid’s DRS Fiasco Leaves Hot Spot In Hot Waters

Yes, I nicked it.

Rahul Dravid, in the centre of some excellent batting form in the series as indeed the last few months, admitted that he had had a feather through to the short-leg, and hence, was out, in the second innings of the Oval Test match between India and England.

Earlier, he had been given not-out by the on-field umpire, Rod Tucker, the DRS had been used and despite what one saw on the replays, and on the Hot-Spot, there wasn't too much conclusive evidence to give a decision either way. In such a scenario, the third umpire needed to put the decision-making capability back into the hands of the on-field umpire, who then stands by his original decision; not-out in this case.

It was a surprise then that Steve Davies, the third umpire, chose to not exercise his right to award the benefit of doubt to the batsman. And there was hardly a way that there wasn't a doubt.

The fact that Dravid admitted that he did nick it meant that justice seemed to have been done in the end, but the outrage among the Indian fans stemmed from the fact that the technology used, Hot-Spot, had failed to register the nick, despite having been tipped to be foolproof by some of the experts. This is the second time in the series that Hot-Spot had failed to detect a thin edge despite the batsman having snicked it.

The train of thought doing round is that with the given equipment and what was shown to the third umpire, he couldn’t have given it out. What aggravated the situation was that Dravid had been India’s best batsman throughout the series and the one whom the English have found it difficult to dislodge. His dismissal couldn’t have come at a more inopportune time, what with the Indians fighting hard to save the Test match. The umpire seemed to have erred in using the technology.

Or so the fans thought. In the end, what does count is that the right decision needs to be made and if, by some sensational quirk of fate, Davies has been able to make that judgement – and that is what it seems he has – one needs to accept it as the correct one and move forward. The batsman certainly seemed to have done so in his post-match interview and therefore, the outrage at the decision seemed a tad unjustified.

What needs to be looked at is the Hot-Spot. For long thought to be the best technology to decide on such decisions, it has come cropper twice in the series. Dravid was honest enough to confess that he had nicked it, but in the present age, such cricketers are few to find and some others, after having watched the replay, would have made a hue and fuss about it.

In short, the time is right for Hot-Spot to go back to the drawing board and not before some amount of testing and improvement should Hot Spot 2.0 be launched.