Former Test allrounder speaks with cricket.com.au about lbw referral issues during decorated career
Watson reflects on challenges of DRS
With his international playing days behind him, Shane Watson has opened up on the lbw troubles that courted his career and his struggles using the Decision Review System.
Watson's lbw record does not make for pleasant reading – in 109 Test innings the allrounder was out 29 times leg before wicket; 14 of those in Ashes cricket.
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"The lbw thing was just a technical thing that I continued to work on that I never really (fixed)," Watson told cricket.com.au.
"Even Test cricket-wise, through a period of my career it wasn't an issue, but at the back-end of my career it was definitely an issue.
"No matter what I worked on, guys, especially English guys in particular, knew how to get me out that way."
It's not uncommon, even at Test level, for elite batsmen to have technical flaws that are relentlessly targeted by opposition bowling units.
Former Australia captains Steve Waugh and Michael Clarke had problems combating short-pitched bowling at different stages of their prolific careers.
Another ex-captain, Ricky Ponting, had issues falling over to the off-side early on in his innings, and had his demons facing high-quality spin bowling on foreign soil.
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What made Watson's weakness to the full, straight ball honed into his stumps more notable was the introduction of the Decision Review System in 2009.
From then on any batsman or fielding captain could directly challenge an umpire's decision, with a series of technological aids including ball tracking, a heat signature camera, and later Real Time Snicko, employed to determine whether the umpire was indeed right or wrong.
The intention of the DRS was to eliminate the howler – a decision so blatantly wrong that the batsman or fielding captain could ask the third umpire to quickly overturn.
But in its infancy the DRS was used by gamblers trying their luck, hoping the ball was pitching outside the line of the stumps, or it was missing the woodwork, or Hot Spot picked up a phantom edge.
It was most commonly used for lbw decisions, with batsmen rolling the dice regularly, using a review desperate to see an inside edge or the ball sailing over the stumps.
And Watson quickly became the case study of not how to use it.
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"You grow up with 'the umpire's decision is final'," Watson said. "If he gives it, you're out, you walk off.
"But then this new technology comes in and you're supposed to know how to use it at the highest level, straight away.
"I was an opening batsman, the ball was moving, I didn't know exactly whether it was close, whether it was missing leg, hitting middle.
"You're also conferring with your partner as well; it's not just me reviewing it straight away every time, because you're there with your mate and he's trying to help you out as well."
By the time the 2013 Ashes series came, Watson's record with lbw reviews was 0/4, with three dismissals coming against England in the 2010-11 Ashes series at home.
Eighteen months later in England, the crosshairs were again on the Australian opener and his left, front pad.
In the first two Tests, at Trent Bridge and Lord's, Watson was given out lbw three times, with the allrounder unsuccessfully challenging twice.
A third lbw review would come in the fourth Test in Durham, but at the point Watson was the last recognised batsman at the crease and the referral was well worth the risk as Australia collapsed spectacularly in the final session of day four to surrender the series.
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"Within a couple of Test matches I learnt the hard way," he said. "There's no doubt in that Ashes series in 2013 I didn't get that right.
"Towards the back end of the Ashes I was like, 'Look, if I'm given out I'm just walking'.
"For one, the backlash that I got (was immense), and I copped it all the way, because at the back-end of my career the crowd and everyone just gave it to me for referrals."
Watson's 59-Test career ended after the first Ashes Test in Cardiff last year, in which he was out lbw in each innings.
Both decisions were reviewed. Both decisions upheld.
While it might have appeared from the outside looking in like a selfish act to continue to use one of the two DRS referrals to save his wicket, Watson explains it was in fact the opposite.
"The decision review thing … in the end I didn't realise how big a deal it was apart from within the team," he said.
"The hardest thing was using up a review, it going against me, and then your mate, who was batting lower down the order who actually had a decision to review, didn't have any to use.
"I was doing the best I could with what was in front of me.
"I didn't do it that well, I learnt the hard way in front of a few million people and I get reminded of it very regularly."