MUMBAI: Australian umpire Bruce Oxenford was once again seen with a protective arm guard on his left-hand while officiating in the first ODI against New Zealand at Dharamsala on Sunday.
The 57-year-old ICC umpire has been using this shield for the limited over games. However, the question remains whether the use of it restricts the movement of the umpire…
“Looking at the photograph of Bruce compared to a helmet I would imagine that the shield is restricting the use of one arm during umpiring, maybe creating difficulty when signaling to the scorers (e.g. wides, sixes, dead balls, etc.”,)”, Karl Wentzel, another umpire from Australia says.
Interestingly, Karl Wentzel was believed to be the first umpire, who made use of the helmet.
“Also this (use of arm-guard) may introduce an object that may cause an injury when accidentally colliding with a play,” Wentzel further added.
“While I did not try an arm shield for protective equipment I tried every other type of helmet (including baseball, hockey goalie, hockey fullback helmets, etc.) and I found that the cricket helmet was the most comfortable and practical to use as protection”.
“The cricket helmet does not cling to the face during long hours of standing and allows for plenty of airflows and for you to wear a sweatband underneath on a hot day. As we know batsmen, together with close up standing fielders and wicketkeepers, all wear such helmets and an umpire wearing the same type of helmet for protection fits in well with established cricket attire”, he added.
“Nevertheless it was great to see another ICC umpire making progress in protecting himself from possible freak injuries caused by the hard hitting balls,” he signed off.
