So finally, here it is: the data they didn’t want me to bring you.
This is a table of all 469 reviews conducted under the Umpire Decision Review System (UDRS or DRS). It shows how many were against each umpire, and how many of his decisions were overturned on appeal. Lastly it shows what percentage of his decisions were wrong.
The table is ranked in order of this percentage, a “fallibility” index. You may draw your own conclusions from it.
| Umpire | Reviews | Overturned | Fallibility |
| BNJ Oxenford | 11 | 1 | 9% |
| Aleem Dar | 40 | 4 | 10% |
| SK Tarapore | 9 | 1 | 11% |
| HDPK Dharmasena | 16 | 2 | 13% |
| IJ Gould | 23 | 3 | 13% |
| RJ Tucker | 15 | 2 | 13% |
| Asad Rauf | 39 | 6 | 15% |
| SJA Taufel | 28 | 5 | 18% |
| NJ Llong | 11 | 2 | 18% |
| BF Bowden | 15 | 3 | 20% |
| RA Kettleborough | 18 | 4 | 22% |
| M Erasmus | 34 | 8 | 24% |
| SJ Davis | 32 | 8 | 25% |
| PR Reiffel | 10 | 3 | 30% |
| RE Koertzen | 19 | 6 | 32% |
| AM Saheba | 18 | 6 | 33% |
| BR Doctrove | 39 | 13 | 33% |
| AL Hill | 45 | 16 | 36% |
| EAR de Silva | 24 | 10 | 42% |
| DJ Harper | 20 | 9 | 45% |
| MR Benson | 3 | 2 | 67% |
No surprise to see Dar and Taufel at the top end. Even less surprise to see Harper at the bottom.
I think ‘fallibility’ as the column name’s a bit unfair though, it should be driven off total decisions, not just those that have been reviewed, non? Although I appreciate that’s an even darker stat to dig for…
History doesn’t record which dismissals involved which umpire, still less how many appeals were turned down unreviewed.
But it’s a fair point. Some bowlers, because of their wicket-to-wicket line, ask for a lot of LBW decisions. An umpire might get 9/10 absolutely right to the satisfaction of all and only be challenged on the closest call. If he is shown to have got that wrong it’s unfair to give him 100% fallibility.
But I’m sure these stats will be in the minds of coaches and players. Expect to see the poor umpires challenged more often than the good ones. Why waste a challenge on Aleem Dar when Daryl Harper is at the other end?
…my point being that Aleem Dar’s decisions will only be reviewed when the challenger is fairly sure he got it wrong. Daryl Harper’s decisions will be reviewed as a matter of course, especially if the batsman is valuable to his team.
This might lead to Aleem Dar’s figures getting worse as time goes on.
Some account needs to be taken of the number of times an umpire is challenged during a match. Clearly we expect Harper’s total per match to be higher than Aleem Dar’s.
A quick point of order.
If you’d called the post “Umpire top ranking,” you could have included the lines:
See me in mi wide-brim ‘at
See me check you ground your bat
Just strikes me as a missed opportunity; that’s all…
A good point, well made.
I’ll be sure to set my next post to the metre of an ’80s one-hit wonder. Perhaps Vanilla Ice was discussing cricket when he said
If there was a problem yo I’ll solve it
Check out the hook while Shane revolves it
You’re too shy shy
Hush hush – one leg bye
Interesting footnote to this table concerning the man at the bottom of it.
Because of the neutral umpire policy, England supporters never see or hear of English umpires much any more. I was aware that Mark Benson was an elite umpire but I didn’t know how his umpiring career ended.
The 2nd Test between Australia and W. Indies at Adelaide in December 2009 was one of the first to feature the UDRS. On the first day, Mark Benson had three decisions referred: one was proved correct but the other two were overturned on review.
After play finished that day he was reported to have “ranted” to his colleagues in the umpiring room about the UDRS. The following day he did not reappear and his place was taken by Asad Rauf for the remainder of the match. He flew back to England straight away and never umpired an international match again.
I guess his record of 67% fallibility will ensure that Daryl Harper never makes the league position he so richly deserves.
AFAIK, Benson was the first umpire to have a decision referred (I don’t think it was in a Windies vs Oz game, but rather Sri Lanka (and maybe India?) – and the referral overturned the original decision). This would suggest that if he had 3 decisions in the 2nd Test Aus vs Windies, that there are in fact at least 4 referrals (with at least 3 overturned) and makes his stat appear even worse.
I’m guessing, that cricinfo probably initially recorded referrals a little differently, and that early referrals might not have been picked up by your script….
I’m not sure whether someone else has mentioned it, but it might be an interesting stat to see how many games (with referral) the umpires have officiated at – there’s a fair spread in number of referrals, but this is presumably in part because they have officiated at a different number of games.
Finally (sorry to be so long-winded), do these stats only include challenges to ‘Out’ or are challenges to ‘Not out’ also included?
Blimey, I haven’t forgotten your comment and I intend to return to it. My table includes all the referrals I can glean including a number of variations on how they are reported in various data sources. So specifically
1. I have gone back as far as I can in the reporting of referrals but I will check again.
2. Referrals per game would indeed be an interesting addition
3. This is all challenges, out and not out.
More when I get time.
Here’s the match you were referring to: http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/343729.html
It’s not possible to say from the match notes which umpire was involved. Also the UDRS was officially launched in 2009 (according to WIkipedia) so perhaps previous referral agreements ought not to be included in UDRS statistics?
The fog of history.
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Good OBO mention today! And, interestingly, today threw up a lovely example of the weakness of statistics. Aleem (or super-Aleem if you will) Dar gave an ‘edge’ behind not out. Referred to UDRS, no obvious hotspot confirmed his decision. 2 mins later, Snicko says it was an edge and should have been out. Snicko, not being available to the UDRS because ‘it takes too long to produce the package’.
On one hand, surely that’s ridiculous? If Hawkeye can do it’s interpolation thang in seconds, how does it take so long to match up sound and video? On the other hand, Dar gets an incremental tick to his stats, whereas he should have got a cross.
You made me think.
A good umpire should never have an out decision overturned. Ever. That’s the laws of cricket. He shouldn’t be giving the batsman out unless he’s sure beyond reasonable doubt that it was out.
A good umpire might expect referrals sometimes to overturn his not-out decisions because the technology removes some (not all) of the doubt and allows a positive (for the fielding side) decision to be made.
My stats should distinguish between outs overturned and not-outs. I should award more Fallibility Points for outs overturned (challenges by batsman).
Will think about how to do this.
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DAR is great in the world
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