Cricket may trial umpire challenges

The right to challenge an umpire's decision by asking for a video replay should be trialled in one-day international cricket, according to a report to be presented to the game's governing body next month.

Written by former South African wicketkeeper and now International Cricket Council general manager Dave Richardson, the report will endorse the wider use of video replays as seen during the ICC's Super Series in Australia late last year.

It will also suggest that challenges to an umpire's decision - similar to those being allowed on the professional tennis circuit this year and in the American NFL for several years - should be trialled at the ICC Champions Trophy in India during October and November.

"You don't have to be a brain surgeon to work out that if we use it, it has to be along the lines of American football, where the players and the coach get to challenge a decision using replays," Richardson told Inside Sport magazine.

Australian captain Ricky Ponting was fined 25 per cent of his match fee for appearing to challenge an umpire's decision on day one of the second Test against Bangladesh in Chittagong.

However if the findings of the report are implemented, Ponting may have been able to challenge the decision without fear of sanction for doing so.

Traditionalists may disagree, but Richardson said any increased use of replays would be done in a way that would not impair the influence of the umpires.

"Cricket is about the authority of the umpire," he said.

"We need the umpires on the field to make the decisions.

"In that way, you only end up challenging if there's a really good chance there's been a mistake. I would argue that it's just another form of appealing."

Richardson said Hawkeye, the hotly-debated technology that purports to prove the veracity of an lbw appeal, was "not in the picture" for use by umpires.

"We just want it right," he said.

"And as (Hawkeye) is, it just looks wrong sometimes - we'd never say `no' to anything, but it's not in the picture."

Statistics kept by the ICC state that at present umpires make the correct calls 93 per cent of the time, but with the help of further video support they could increase the accuracy percentage to 98.