Miandad has doubts about ICC's use of technology

Javed Miandad has questioned the ICC's decision to implement new technology during the Champions Trophy, and suggested that series of lesser importance would have been better suited for such experimentation.

"It puzzles me that for such a prestigious event, the ICC decided to introduce the laws that the third umpire will call no-balls; and in seven of 15 matches, umpires will be wired to stumps mikes to judge caught-behinds," said Miandad. "If I would be playing today, I would certainly be very uncomfortable...at least with third umpires calling no-balls.

"This is the mini-World Cup and you simply can't afford experimentations in it. Even if the intention is to include these laws in the 2007 World Cup, there are plenty of other opportunities to judge if the rules are worthy of inclusion. I don't understand why they included these in the ICC Champions Trophy."

Miandad disapproved of no-ball calls coming from the third umpire as they took away an extra split-second from the batsman. "An extra split-second advantage is now gone. In our days, we used to swing our bat in an effort to score maximum immediately after hearing a no-ball call. But now, the best that can happen to a batsman is that he can resume his innings after being dismissed off a no-ball. If I would be playing cricket today, I would be very unhappy with this law."

The plan to wire umpires to stump-mikes was faulty, Miandad believed, and he spoke about the decisions that went against Pakistan in the Videocon Cup final. "It will surely confuse the umpires. When already there is plenty of noise on the ground and especially when it is a Pakistan-India game, how will the umpires judge which sound is of the ball taking the edge of the bat and which one is [of the ball] brushing the pad? Now, instead of making the right decisions, they will start making wrong decisions [which could come] at crucial stages of the game.

"I think the perfect example of how easily umpires can be deceived by the stump mikes was in Holland, when David Shepherd declared Inzamam-ul-Haq and Yousuf Youhana out. He declared them caught behind chiefly because he heard two noises, and at that stage he didn't trust his instincts, but the voices he heard from the stump mikes.

"If you want to introduce something on an experimental basis, do it in lesser tension-packed series."