"Plenty of strikers can score goals," he said, gesturing to the famous old stands casting shadows around us.
"But a lot have found it difficult wearing the number 9 shirt for The Arsenal."
It has helped with lbw and nicks in cricket, also run outs. For some reason it has led to umpires not bothering to check for no balls anymore, which is a bit weird. It may also have made the standard of umpiring slightly worse.
THe one where Malan was given out after a huge inside edge. Leaving aside the fact that he should have challenged it I was watching it live and was stunned the umpire gave out. My initial reaction was it wasn't out in a million years- hit him outside the line, he's moving and there was something wrong with it- which turned out to be a massive inside edge. I still cant quite believe he gave it out.
I'd agree that the standard of on-field umpiring has fallen dramatically, but would argue that that is because umpires are not being held to account for making poor on-field decisions. I'd argue that if your decisions are getting regularly overturned, you need to be kicked off the international umpire's panel and replaced with someone better. You'd soon see on-field decisions improving again.
The Malan thing is bizarre. Sure, it was a terrible decision, but I can remember worse from the days before DRS. However, I've played cricket for 35 years and never in all that time have I even feathered one and not known it (I mean I've stood there swearing blind I didn't hit it when I knew I did, obviously, but that's different ). That someone can smash the ball into his pad like that and not know he's done it enough to challenge the decision is simply astonishing to me.
In short, Malan was out there because he was a thick cünt.
Last edited by Burney; 01-11-2018 at 11:19 AM.
As you know, p. The feel of the ball hitting the edge of the bat is something to which every batsman is immensely sensitive. Sure, the snickometer has shown us that there are infinitesimally small nicks that it's possible not to notice, but 99.995% of the time, if you nick it, you know. And given that Malan absolutely smashed the fücker, I cannot believe he didn't realise.
I remember on one occasion I was batting to save a game and did a great job of looking innocent as the fielders shouted for a catch behind. Once all the furore had died down and the wicketkeeper had finally finished calling me a cheating cünt. I looked down to take guard and there was a new, bright red mark on the edge of my bat
I agree entirely Burney.
Football is way too open to poor decisions being made because of human error. Every goal should be reviewed to help eliminate things like incorrect offside decisions (for and against) and unspotted fouls that definitely interfere with play. However, I don't think that it should be left solely to the referee on the pitch to make a final decision though.
Last edited by Bergkamp Was Best; 01-11-2018 at 11:15 AM.
It's a silly thing done in a silly way. But, if you must, then get the video umpire and his on-field colleagues to be in constant conference with each other, independent of baying from the players. If any of them notice anything, they should make their decision which is then relayed to everybody else through the on-field official-in-charge.
"Plenty of strikers can score goals," he said, gesturing to the famous old stands casting shadows around us.
"But a lot have found it difficult wearing the number 9 shirt for The Arsenal."