It was a fairly innocuous delivery - pitching on leg and hitting the knee-roll in front of leg and middle - to a fairly innocuous batsman. But when Chaminda Vaas rapped Shoaib Malik on the pads in the opening match of the Champions Trophy yesterday, history was made and a can of worms was opened. Under the experimental rules of this competition, umpires are permitted, for the first time, to refer lbw decisions and bat-pad catches to the television replay screen. And, just as Sachin Tendulkar entered the record-books at Durban almost ten years ago, when he became the first victim of a replayed run-out, so Shoaib made "inglorious history," as Callistas Davy in Sri Lanka's Daily Mirror put it, when umpire Daryl Harper turned to his off-field colleague Rudi Koertzen for confirmation.

The Daily Mail, as is their wont, were unequivocal about the significance of the moment. "The result," trumpeted Graham Otway, "could change the face of world cricket forever." Derek Pringle in the Daily Telegraph agreed, in more measured tones, that "the all-seeing television lens" could be here to stay, though he was less than convinced of its merits. He was particularly concerned that decisions have to be reached within 20 seconds, to maintain the flow of the game. "`If in doubt, it must be not out,' was the old adage," said Pringle. "With such a brief window in which to judge the evidence, doubt may have been increased rather than reduced."

The fact that Shoaib's dismissal was marginal, even to the cameras, was another cause for Pringle's concern. "The likely trend, now the brief has been extended," he continued, "is that more players will be found to be out than not. If that happens, totals will be lower and games shortened, a fact that may not please everyone."

England's batsmen weren't too worried about that, though. Nasser Hussain, who has attracted more than his fair share of duff decisions in recent times, agreed that new technology had to be tried out, while Nick Knight believed the raw deal that he and his fellow left-handers had been getting would finally be over: "The natural line [of right-armed bowlers] brings the ball into us from outside leg, and though it shouldn't happen, we often get given out."

David Hopps in The Guardian agreed that Shoaib's dismissal was a historic moment. "Yet," he continued, "such is television's insatiable desire to be master of all it surveys that it was passed off as an entirely natural development. They will be saying that in ten years' time when batsmen are voted out by the viewers - in which case it is not too late for Tony Blackburn to play for England."

Resistance is futile, added Hopps. "For one thing, cricket is big business, and big business resents human error. For another, the future of cricket and the TV companies is inextricably linked … television is relishing its role as judge and juror."

Such was the gravitas of the occasion, that it even earned a leader in the Daily Telegraph. "Nothing offends the television viewer's sense of fairness more than a human umpire's decision that is instantly shown by a replay to have been wrong," it thundered. "How sad it will be, however, if computers leave human umpires with nothing more to do than hold the bowler's sweater. While fallible mortals are in charge, their decisions will always test the players' sportsmanship, adding a frisson of drama to every event. And where will the losers be, without the consolation of blaming the ref?"

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