Ben Stokes urges ICC to get rid of controversial rule after Labuschagne's dismissal debate

England's Test captain Ben Stokes has given his verdict on the latest controversy involving Marnus Labuschagne's dismissal during the ongoing third Test match between Australia and South Africa. The controversy surrounds the soft signal rule in which the on-field umpire gives a decision based on his instinct before going upstairs for a review. The incident occurred in the 42nd over of the first innings when Labuschagne edged a Marco Jansen delivery to Simon Harmer at slip. 

Harmer took a low catch at slip resulting in the on-field umpire Paul Reiffel giving a soft signal of out before going upstairs for a review. Third umpire Richard Kettleborough examined the replays and overturned the soft signal to give it not out. South African players were left in shock by the decision as they felt Harmer had caught the ball cleanly. This caused a massive controversy around the soft signal rule, triggering Stokes to share his opinion on the matter. 

Stokes took to his official Twitter handle to request ICC scrap the soft signal system and leave it on the third umpire to make a decision in an event when the on-field umpires are not sure. Stokes said that all the controversy is always around the soft signal given by the on-field umpire. 

"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," Stokes wrote in his tweet. 

Harbhajan calls it waste of time

Meanwhile, former India cricketer Harbhajan Singh has termed the soft signal rule an absolute waste of time, saying that what's the point of it when the on-field umpire is anyway going to refer the decision to the third umpire. 

As far as the match is concerned, Australia scored 147/2 in 47 overs before the match was called off for the day due to bad light. Labuschagne was dismissed moments before the match was stopped. He was removed by South African pacer Anrich Nortje for 79 off 151 balls. Usman Khawaja is still intact at 54 off 121 balls. Earlier in the day, David Warner was dismissed by Nortje for 10 off 11 balls. 

Image: AP