“This isn’t a comment on the decision” - Ben Stokes gets cheeky while sharing his views on Harmer catch controversy

England Test captain Ben Stokes chipped in on the Simon Harmer-Marnus Labuschagne catch controversy on Day 1 of the Sydney Test between Australia and South Africa on Wednesday, January 4.

In a post on Twitter, he urged the ICC to get rid of the soft signal and let the TV umpire make the final decision using all the technology he possesses. He, however, ended his tweet by cheekily stating that he wasn’t commenting on the Sydney Test controversy.

Batting on 70, Labuschagne was ruled not out by the third umpire after he nicked a ball from Marco Jansen to the slips. Harmer claimed the catch, but the batter did not walk. The on-field umpires referred the decision upstairs. After watching multiple angles of the replay, third umpire Richard Kettleborough concluded that the catch hadn’t been taken cleanly.

The soft signal was out, but with the modified rules, it only comes into play if there is an issue with the TV replay or if it is unavailable. Earlier, the third umpire had to find conclusive evidence to overturn the on-field signal.

Sharing his thoughts on the catch controversy in Sydney, Stokes tweeted:

“ICC should get rid of 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 🤣🤣.”

South Africa did not suffer much due to the decision, as Anrich Nortje dismissed Labuschagne on 79, forcing the batter to edge a brilliant delivery. It turned out to be the last ball of a truncated day on which only 47 overs were possible.

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“If there's no TV then I'm walking” - Marnus Labuschagne on Simon Harmer catch controversy

Backing his decision to stand his ground despite Harmer claiming the catch, Labuschagne opined that there’s technology available to make the call.

He added that it’s just how the game works. Explaining his stance over the controversy, the batter was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo:

"Regardless of whether it's caught or not, with the technology, there's so many ones that people are adamant they have caught - and Simon said 'I've caught that' - and in the old rules of catching it, because you felt like your fingers are under it, absolutely, but with the new footage those are so scrutinised because you see so many angles. Especially that side-on angle, makes it look really bad, then the front-on angle actually looks pretty good.

"If there's no TV then I'm walking, that's just how the game works. But with the amount of slow-motion footage of the ball, you see his fingers push and split open, according to the technicalities some of the ball is touching the grass, regardless of whether his fingers are under it or not."

At stumps on Day 1 in Sydney, Usman Khawaja was batting on 54 off 121 balls. David Warner was dismissed for 10 by Nortje.