Cricket: New age starts with a whimper

MELBOURNE - The new age of cricket umpiring arrived at Telstra Dome here last night and its first airing achieved precisely nothing.

Apart from delaying the game by a minute and 40 seconds.

The inaugural Super Series match between the World XI and Australia was into its 14th over when Australian umpire Simon Taufel became the first to call for outside assistance in assessing an edge.

Simon Katich, then on 26 and struggling to find his timing, took an ungainly aerial swipe at a bouncer from Andrew Flintoff and there was a half-hearted appeal for caught behind.

Taufel hesitated for a moment then drew an outline of a television screen with his hands to indicate he was seeking advice from third umpire Rudi Koertzen of South Africa.

Koertzen examined the television replays but none of the angles captured shed any light on whether the ball had touched Katich's bat, or whether there had been any deviation in the flight through to wicketkeeper Kumar Sangakkara of Sri Lanka.

Koertzen told Taufel through his earpiece that the evidence was inconclusive and Taufel went back to the oldest umpiring rule in the book.

He gave Katich the benefit of the doubt.

This presented him with a new problem - how to communicate that to the players, scorers, crowd and television audience.

He settled for scissoring his hands horizontally in front of his waist, the universal sign for cancellation.

The new system, under trial in the three one-day games and the Sydney test of this Super Series, allows umpires in the field to refer any queries to the TV umpire, including leg before wicket appeals and edged catches.

Captains Ricky Ponting and Shaun Pollock had an extended briefing with the umpires and match officials on the eve of the series before giving the trial a qualified thumbs-up.

- AAP