Bangalore: The ongoing Test match between India and Australia has once again rekindled the debate over the use of umpire referrals.

What brought the issue to light was the dubious decision of Ricky Ponting’s return catch in the first innings. The field umpires Asad Rauf and Rudi Koertzen debated the issue for a minute before deciding the matter in favour of the batsman.

The field umpires could have sought the help of the third umpire but went by the gut feeling that the catch was off a bump ball. The TV replays however showed that the umpires could have been wrong. But the two field umpires are however sticking to their guns.

Wiser after the event, one of the three umpires involved in the decision making in the match made a candid admission.

“Maybe the TV help should have been sought, because there is unnecessary scrutiny at the end of it all. If TV had been involved in the process then we all could have been seen in better light,” said one of the umpires.

This is not to say that the umpires are now regretting not giving Ponting out, but far from it. They feel it could have helped put the entire issue in better light.

Another dubious decision on the opening day, led to Matthew Hayden being given out off the third ball of the match. The ball deviated after it went past the bat. It seemed to naked eye that it went off the bat. But closer examination revealed that the ball was nowhere near the bat.

On the first morning of a Test match and that too in India, it becomes difficult to get such verdicts right.

“There is so much noise around Indian grounds. Any noise can mislead us, so that again is not a mistake,” added the umpire.

The pot of woes for the umpires overflowed in the Indian innings as well when Rahul Dravid was given out leg-before when it appeared as if the ball had hit the bat first and then the pad.

If umpire referrals had been in place maybe such decisions could have been avoided. But the umpires believe that such decisions cannot be referred to the third umpire, because it will set a wrong precedent.

The India tour to Sri Lanka was to some extent overshadowed by the referral system and how decisions were reversed quite often after TV umpires were involved.

“You just cannot have TV deciding. The cameras are placed at a height; they cannot gauge the height and bounce. Only the field umpires can judge that. There have been instances when leg-before decisions seem like it is going over the top of the stumps in all these technologies, but that is not the same story when we are on the field. Okay use TV help to judge run-outs and stumpings but nothing more than that,” fumed an umpire.

In between all this you have batsmen like Sourav Ganguly who get hit on the pad and then just to add to the confusion raise their bat as if to show that they had hit it. Even Ganguly would smile and admit that raising the bat becomes second nature.

Then again there is also the case of the slow, low pitches in the Indian subcontinent. There have been numerous cases of foreign umpires getting it absolutely wrong when dealing with such scenarios. These umpires fail to judge according to the nature of the tracks.

“It takes a lot of time for a lot of us to adjust to the change in conditions. There are bound to be mistakes especially on line calls. Then you have so much media scrutiny especially in India all this just leads to more controversy. Remember the Sydney Test fiasco was magnified more because of the media and commentators,” said one of the match officials.

Clearly the debate over the use of technology has clearly not ended, maybe the ongoing series will just help settle the debate once and for all.