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S'Africa for greater role for third eye

It is a concept recognised in the military -- that of 'danger pay'.

It now appears to have been recognised in cricket as well -- thus, the South African cricket squad are being paid their full bonuses, despite losing the recent Test series in England 2-1.

The UCBSA however quickly denied that the payment of full bonus -- which, as per the prevailing contracts, are made only in the event of series win -- was to compensate the players for being subjected to some atrocious umpiring.

"This team has had the toughest schedule ever experienced by a South African team," said UCBSA managing director Ali Bacher, arguing that the full bonus -- approximately 27,000 Rand per player -- was being paid by the board to compensate for the tough grind.

"They have played 16 Tests in 10 months. In my time, I played 12 Test matches in six years," Bacher said. "That's why we have decided to pay them their full bonus, and that's the only reason."

Bacher who, immediately in the aftermath of the defeat in the final Test at Headingley asked his captain, Hansie Cronje, to prepare and submit a no-holds barred report on the umpiring, however downplayed suggestions that bad umpiring had anything to do with the Proteas' defeat. "There's more guts in this England team than what we've seen for a long time, and a strong England team will be good for world cricket," he said.

However, he did admit that umpiring was an issue. "The fact of the matter is that this series was dogged by more umpiring controversy than we have seen since our return to international cricket," he said.

While both sides suffered at the hands of some below-par umpiring, South Africa were decidedly the worse off, especially in the final Test. International umpire Javed Akthar was the chief culprit, handing out a series of questionable LBW decisions. Other umpires to figure in bad officiating instances were Steve Dunne, Mervyn Kitchen and Peter Willey, the last two being from the host nation.

Subsequent to the defeat, the South African media and even some past players -- most notably Fanie de Villiers -- have come out strongly in support of greater intervention by the third umpire.

Bacher has indicated that he will use Cronje's report to bolster a call for a change in umpiring rules, incorporating greater powers for the third umpire.

The UCBSA managing committee will meet next week, to discuss the issue, and it is expected that the board will pitch for the third umpire to be involved in bat-pad and caught behind appeals, as also LBW decisions. The South African board will, it is learnt, implement it in domestic competition, while pitching the ICC to extend the third umpire's role at the international level.

"If this is approved we will be doing it not to undermine the confidence of umpires but to assert it," Bacher said. "We would have to come up with a modus operandi for implementing the system that will satisfy everybody involved."