In Test Cricket, Still Bet On The Home Team
Monday, December 15, 2014 - 13:10
in Psychology & Sociology
Are umpires biased? There has been sociological woo produced trying to prove they are racist in baseball but a paper has found that if a cricket team has home umpires, some bias does get introduced, at least in Test cricket, the longest form of the sport . The introduction of neutral umpires in Test cricket led to a drop in the number of Leg Before Wicket (LBW - think the offsides rule in soccer for how arcane and subjective it once was) decisions going in favor of home teams, according to economists writing in the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, and it validates that neutral umpiring is still needed in Test matches even with the Decision Review System (DRS). read more