Haddin not a believer in umpire reviews

Brad Haddin remains unconvinced of the umpire review system's merits and would prefer the on-field officials to either have sole control or hand over all decisions to technology to eliminate "grey areas". As the man standing behind the stumps, Haddin has the best view in the Australian team but has not yet been persuaded by what he has seen.

Nor is he keen to take the responsibility of using his vantage point to advise the captain Ricky Ponting, who wasted both of Australia's reviews early in West Indies' second innings in Adelaide on unsuccessful caught-behind decisions, which are difficult to prove on replay. Ponting remains optimistic that the system can improve the game, West Indies' captain Chris Gayle is against it, and Haddin has yet to be sold on the idea.

"I wasn't a great fan of it to start with, I think it's designed to take the real howlers out of the game," Haddin said. "Personally I am happy with either all the power the umpire has or giving everything to technology and referring all decisions. It's still a bit of a grey area at the moment and we'll have to see how it goes over the coming months.

"As a keeper you do have the best view but I don't want that pressure of getting the wrong or right one. It's a funny one because we thought we had a couple of obvious ones in Adelaide that got turned down, but the bottom line is we are still taking 20 wickets a Test match without the referral system. I am not a great believer in it."

Ponting asked the umpires for their thoughts on the review system after Adelaide and in the nets at the WACA on Monday he and Billy Bowden had a long discussion. Bowden was flown to Perth to officiate in the third Test after Mark Benson went home to England following the first day in Adelaide. Benson said his decision to withdraw from the Test was entirely due to health reasons and denied reports that it was due to his dissatisfaction with the review system.