International captains back umpiring technology experiments at ICC Champions Trophy 2004

Most international cricket captains have backed the ICC's experimental use of technology to assist better umpire decision making, according to the findings of a survey commissioned among the captains of teams competing in next month's ICC Champions Trophy.

Of the 10 captains who took part in the survey, only Australian skipper Ricky Ponting and Tatenda Taibu of Zimbabwe disagree with the principle of more technology for umpires. Ponting's view is consistent with a long-standing Australian approach to the subject while Taibu, Test cricket's youngest-ever captain, believes that "what's already there is enough".

Those in favour of more assistance for officials include England's Michael Vaughan, who said: "In general, I am in favour of using new technology to assist the umpires as they only have a split second in which to make a decision which can be analysed over and over again. So I don't believe they should be the sole judge of all appeals.

"But I have reservations about the use of certain types of technology. I am not convinced, for example, that Hawkeye is always 100 per cent right on lbw decisions because the umpire in the middle is still the person who is best placed to judge how the pitch is behaving and what the ball is doing.

"That said, I do like the idea of using technology to highlight the wicket-to-wicket area on a pitch so the umpire can get a better idea as to whether the ball has pitched inside or outside the line of leg stump. I think that would really help eliminate some of the more obvious bad decisions when a batsman is given out when the ball has pitched outside the line of leg stump," explained Vaughan.

South Africa captain Graeme Smith concurs, saying: "I think every effort should be made to get the right decision. It will be very interesting to see how the experiments at the ICC Champions Trophy work."

Others in support are Stephen Fleming of New Zealand, Marvan Atapattu, Sri Lanka, Habibul Bashar, Bangladesh, Steve Tikolo of Kenya and Richard Staple of the USA.

Pakistan leader Inzamam-ul-Haq is another to back the experiment: "Yes, I'm very much in favour, because the game of cricket has become very professional, small errors have been affecting results. So much cricket is being played and umpires have been under tremendous pressure due to the heavy workload on them."

The search for improved decision-making will see standing umpires wired-up to TV stump microphone technology, and third umpires calling no balls during the ICC Champions Trophy.

Confirming the success of the current no ball trial at the Videocon triangular tournament in Holland, ICC general manager-cricket David Richardson said: "Although we have been limited by poor weather, the initial feedback to this trial is that standing umpires are very comfortable with it and have adapted quickly to the change of not looking for no balls. In practice it is more demanding for the third umpire, who has to look at every delivery bowled. Where no balls have been called in Holland there has been minimal delay between the standing umpire receiving the call from the third umpire and making his signal."

The ICC has previously confirmed that umpires standing in seven of the 15 ICC Champions Trophy matches will wear an earpiece that picks up the audio from the stump microphone as the ball passes the batsman. The trial will indicate whether the microphone's position close to the action area will provide audible assistance to officials in cases which are sometimes difficult to pick up, such as thin nicks to the keeper or bat pad fielders.