SA - India Cricket - TV Broadcast quality

The quality of commentators is pretty poor. Perhaps a couple of them have forgotten that their broadcast is international and that they are not sitting on the hill with body paint, a can of beer and rooting for the home team. Interestingly it is not the ex-players who are doing this. Allan Donald is actually quite good. It is the so called Professionals namely Mike Haysman and Robin Jackman. The irony is that these two have been doing commentary for a living for a long time, in many parts of the World and for matches not involving SA.

In particular one incident from yesterday's play is worth investigation by the ICC. When India was 8 down and slowly building a lead Ishant Sharma was caught at short leg of a lifter. The umpire wanted to check if it was a no ball and asked Ishant to wait. The first replay the TV broadcaster aired showed Kallis not behind the line at the point of delivery when the bowling arm was vertical. The commentator Haysman said something like "does not look good for SA and Kallis". Before any other replays were shown the 3 rd umpire ruled in favour of the home team. Then the TV braodcaster quickly showed a still of Kallis behind the line however with the bowling arm horizontal. That is there was still 90 degress to go for the arm and any associated movement of the the feet before the delivery is completed. Haysman quickly muttered something like "That is a fair enough decision for me". After that there were no more replays or even a mere mention of that decision. Very strange given that they spend a lot longer working out if a fielder touched the ropes trying to save a four.

The 3 rd umpire was wrong and the worrying thing for me was that the TV broadcaster appeared to collude and cover up.

On other matters is it nonsensical for India to stand in the way of the DRS. They used it wrongly in an away series against SL and ever since have been against it. The DRS is not a get of out jail card to buy a wicket or protect a big batsman when things are not going well. But that is how India used it in that series and came a cropper. They need to take the emotion out of this and look at it objectively starting with a lesson on what are the objectives of the DRS. Hopefully sanity will prevail and DRS gets to be mandatory starting from the WC.

If the foot lands behind the line and drags forward over the line its a legal delivery I believe?

Didn't used to be in the 1950s and the back foot no ball rule.

Still, South African TV are pretty incompetant. Was it the TV Company or Daryl Harper who turned the sound down when England were appealing for a caught behind?

Robin Jackman is a moron.

Gary 111 wrote:If the foot lands behind the line and drags forward over the line its a legal delivery I believe?

Didn't used to be in the 1950s and the back foot no ball rule.

Still, South African TV are pretty incompetant. Was it the TV Company or Daryl Harper who turned the sound down when England were appealing for a caught behind?

Gaz, with the back foot rule you could drag as far as you liked.