Umpire Taylor hails ‘soft signal’ rule change

FOLLOWING the decision of cricket’s governing body, the International Cricket Council (ICC), to remove the use of the ‘soft signal’ as of June 1, 2023, Jamaica-born regional umpire Chris Taylor believes that the decision means the roles of the on-field and third umpire will now change slightly. Taylor, who has officiated in 30 first-class matches and 40 List ‘A’ matches, believes that with the current change, he would relish the opportunity of officiating as a third umpire despite having more work to do.

“This now means that the responsibilities of the on-field and third umpire slightly changes. The third umpires now will not be guided but will have to determine everything by themselves. Maybe, officiating as a third umpire, I would rather it this way as what this will mean is that I don’t have to find a way to prove the on-field umpire right or wrong, but rather, view the footage and make a determination for myself,” Taylor stated.

According to the ICC rules, a ‘soft signal’ is described as a visual communication by the bowler’s end umpire to the third umpire of his/her initial on-field decision before initiating an umpire’s review. Taylor added that he believed that research findings could have shown that leaving the final decision to the third umpire, who is fitted with television cameras, would have produced more accurate decisions.

“I don’t think it was brought in to move the game at a faster rate. I thought it was brought in to remove the ambiguity of certain situations. By the research, maybe what has come up is that the on-field umpires are not really in the best positions to judge these decisions because they don’t have the different angles. So by giving it to the TV umpire, who has all the angles possible, you have a better way of judging whether it’s out or not out,” Taylor explained.

Veteran regional cricket analyst Joseph ‘Reds’ Perreira has stated that the decision to remove the ‘soft signal’ should have come long ago.

“Well, I’m so happy that they (ICC) have finally come to their senses because it is a very silly rule. It placed a lot of pressure on the on-field umpires, and in many cases, they made the wrong decision when making a ‘soft signal’. It was difficult for the on-field umpire to make a decision, which was some 70 or 80 yards away, to determine whether a catch was cleanly taken or not. So they’ve done the right thing by reversing this decision, which lasted much too long,” he remarked.

Perreira added that this move should have been in place from the get-go as the smart thing to do is to allow the third umpire, with all the technology available at his/her disposal, to make those decisions.

“The simple thing that they should have done in the first place was to leave all the queries to the third umpire, who has all the technology and cameras to get the right decision and it will hold up play a lot less. It will certainly help to move the game at a faster rate,” Perreira said.

orane.buchanan@gleanerjm.com