No Crap On The Ashes

The umpire referral system won't be in place for the Ashes series. I breathe a sigh of relief at the thought that the one thing which has spoiled a good few Test series in the past year won't interfere with the single most important series of an Aussie or English player's life.

But the system will come into play from October this year, no doubt going on to undergo a few changes as the matches go by and it becomes clear how best the idea can be implemented without screwing up games.

Don't expect Haroon Logat not to go around waxing bullshit though:

"It reduced the number of incorrect decisions and also cut down on instances of player dissent."

Perhaps the first, but largely in cases where it could have gone either way, and as for player dissent, is standing your ground after every lbw call and insisting on taking it to the 3rd umpire not an example of "player dissent". I'll be damned. I must have seen batsmen oppose some of the most horrendously out decisions in the history of the game, but it's not dissent, it's WIELDING THE POWER GRANTED TO YOU BY THE ICC.

Lovely.

In other news, the fine for slow pay has doubled. Maybe I do like the ICC after all.