Steve Smith’s non-catch controversy exposes deeper issue plaguing cricket

An eye-rolling howler from an umpire with a long history of them or simply the right call? BEN HORNE and ROBERT CRADDOCK debate the greatest catch that never was.

It’s the issue that’s divided the world. Out or not out?

Not for the first time Virat Kohli has polarised opinion by surviving perhaps the greatest catch that never was in Test cricket at the hands of Steve Smith.

Cricket writers Ben Horne and Crash Craddock go head-to-head in prosecuting the arguments for and against in the moment that has lit up the fifth Test.

Virat Kohli, Mitchell Starc and Travis Head after the Indian’s controversial survival of a close call from the third umpire. Picture: David Gray/AFP

BEN HORNE: An eye-rolling howler from an umpire with history

It was just out.

Third umpire Joel Wilson reckons the ball “rolled” out of Steve Smith’s grasp before parrying up to Marnus Labuscahgne to complete the greatest catch never recorded in Test cricket.

But the only thing rolling was the eyes of people watching around Australia and the world at the latest blunder from Wilson who has a history of making howlers in Test cricket.

Virat Kohli should have been on his bike for a first ball duck which would have turned this deciding Test on its head.

Smith’s fingers were clearly underneath the ball and even though the ball momentarily lurches in his grasp before popping up out of his knuckle and forefinger, there is no evidence of it touching the grass.

Aussies denied classic catch by third umpire

Sometimes blown up slow-mo replays can make these decisions more complicated and confusing than they are. And that is the case in this instance. You can make yourself see anything when the vision is zoomed so much the picture is blurry.

In real motion and from the camera angle set slightly further back, it is clear the ball just squeezes up out of Smith’s finger and knuckle and at no point did it graze the green grass of the SCG.

Neutral commentator Michael Vaughan on Fox Cricket, who calls it how he sees it said: “I thought that was OUT …”

If it looks out, guess what – sometimes it’s out.

There was a moment earlier in the summer when a contentious catch came to Smith in Adelaide and despite the excitement of teammates, he immediately signalled not out. He wasn’t having a bar of it.

Smith is not one to claim catches that he doesn’t feel are 100 per cent out and his reaction to catching Virat Kohli was instantaneous and unwavering. He was adamant he’d popped it up – fortuitously – but cleanly.

“That’s out,” Smith said after Wilson rejected the appeal on video as shook his head.

There were some surprising misses by Wilson as a standing umpire on the last day of the Boxing Day Test, only to be saved by DRS overturning them, but in Sydney it was his turn up in the box.

This has been an incredible series, but still, 16 years after DRS was introduced to cricket, those running the game are still fumbling around with technology.

ROBERT CRADDOCK: Right call from the wrong man

I can’t understand the logic of third umpire Joel Wilson but I still feel he stumbled on the right decision … not out.

The simple reason is that the ball appeared to touch the grass – it only has to tickle one blade – before Steve Smith had full control of it. This is one of the closest calls we have seen on this issue.

There is no question Smith thought it was a fair catch.

When Wilson said the ball “rolled’’ he must have been watching a different replay to the one which transfixed fans at the SCG.

I could not see it rolling anywhere.

The Aussies were certain they’d got their man. Picture: David Gray/AFP

But the ball did appear to touch the grass and I am yet to be convinced if it had not done so Smith would have retained full control.

But there is a more important issue at play here. It is that cricket needs specialist third umpires.

Wilson is struggling on an off the field. The game needs full time third umpires who are a separate breed from the on-field officials.

Being able to officiate on the field is one thing. Being able to interpret the game’s electronic eyes is quite another.

The more cricket searches for perfection with technology the more it finds that the game will never be perfect.

Originally published as Steve Smith’s non-catch controversy exposes deeper issue plaguing cricket