Former India wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel has weighed in with his views on the ongoing debate over the ‘soft signal’ rule in cricket. The debate has been triggered by Suryakumar Yadav’s controversial dismissal during the fourth T20I between India and England at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Friday.

Suryakumar’s stunning knock of 57 came to an end in a controversial manner when he was given out caught by Dawid Malan at deep square leg. On the second ball of the 14th over of India’s innings, Suryakumar pulled Sam Curran into the deep where Malan initially appeared to have taken a low catch. The England fielders started celebrating as on-field umpire KN Ananthapadmanabhan gave a soft signal of ‘out’.

Controversy soon erupted when third umpire Virender Sharma adjudged it out despite remaining unconvinced about whether it was a clean catch. Sharma watched the replays of the catch from various angles for nearly four minutes and repeatedly mentioned the evidence as “inconclusive” but eventually decided to uphold the on-field’s soft-signal call.

I don’t think cricket needs a soft signal: Parthiv Patel

The dismissal has caused a big controversy in the cricket fraternity and several experts have called for more clarity on the rule. As far as Parthiv Patel is concerned, he believes the soft signal rule should be done away with and the third umpire should be the only one taking a call on the appeals which are referred to him.

“If I have to answer that straight, I don’t think cricket needs a soft signal. You have got to be straightforward. Either it’s out or not out. If you are not sure, go to the third umpire and tell ‘you make your own decision’. ‘We have not seen it, you make your own decision’. That was the case before.

“You have got to understand that does not mean you’re not out. When the field umpire goes to the third umpire without any soft signal, that doesn’t mean that you’re not. It’s a decision that the third umpire has to make because ‘we don’t know what happened on the field’,” Parthiv Patel said on Star Sports.