Spectator Sport | 23 January 2010

If shrinks don’t have a term like disproportionate response — you know, getting jailed for clearing the snow off your path or some such madness — then they certainly should have. We need it to do justice to the lunatic levels of hoo-ha, from players, commentators and fans, over Graeme Smith’s referral and phantom snick in the third Test at Johannesburg. As Michael Vaughan, bless, had to point out, it was only a cricket match; nobody had died. It’s pointless bitching that Smith should have walked: I mean, does he look the kind of guy who walks? Mark you, some might think Hashim Amla doesn’t look like the kind of guy who walks, but he absolutely is, every time. Quite possibly the only big-name player these days who always does, now Adam Gilchrist has retired.

And at least the referral system is now here to stay, or so it seems. The ECB isn’t that keen though, and at £5m a pop, a ‘hotspot’ camera isn’t something you can pick up at Boots… it’s the size of a van for a start.