England captain Ben Stokes has once again called for the 'soft signal' rule to be scrapped after Marnus Labuschagne was controversially given not out by the third umpire during the final Test between Australia and South Africa.
South Africa were convinced Simon Harmer had taken a clean catch at first slip after Labuschagne edged a delivery from Marco Jansen and on-field umpire Paul Reiffel gave a 'soft signal' of out before sending the decision upstairs to third umpire Richard Kettlebrough.
After much deliberation, Kettleborough decided Harmer had not caught it cleanly and gave Labuschagne not out. In response to the controversial decision, Stokes renewed his calls for the 'soft signal' to be scrapped entirely.
He tweeted: "ICC should get rid off the soft signal and let the 3rd umpire who has all the technology to make the decision when the on field umpires send it upstairs, all the controversy is always around the soft signal given. This isn’t a comment on the decision FYI".
Stokes previously called for the ICC to get rid of the 'soft signal' last year following a T20I between England and South Africa in July. And while the rule has not been abolished altogether like Stokes wants, the ICC have apparently tweaked it slightly.
Former umpire Simon Taufel, who stood in a total of 350 international matches during his career, explained the signal is now only used if television replays are unavailable instead of the third umpire needing to find conclusive evidence to overturn the 'soft signal'.
"The ICC did tweak its third-umpire protocols in this area last year, where the soft signal in this particular case with a fair catch would carry less weight," he told Australian broadcaster Channel Seven. "So Richard really had a tough job with that one, particularly because the camber of the ground slopes away.
"Obviously, Richard felt that the ball hit the ground before getting into the hands. It's a tough call. That's where the foreshortening of the lens really becomes a little bit deceptive, when you look at it front-on.
"I think that's why Richard started with that side-on shot to start with because it looks like the ball is dipping down, but sometimes you'll get that half-frame in between the ball dipping down and the ball going up, and that's why the side-on shot is sometimes the better one for the third umpire to look at, but I can understand why South Africa might feel a bit hard done by there."
