When someone advocates adopting technology to help with officiating in sports, usually there are two justifications. The first is that it would be fairer to the athletes who work so hard and put so much effort and passion into the game: they deserve the best officiating possible. The other is that fans deserve to have their teams treated fairly and not have a World Series or Super Bowl won or lost on a botched call.

Here's another interesting argument for using technology to help with officiating: it's fairer for the officials:

There is no doubt that the use of television replays would help reduce the number of mistakes made by officials and one can sympathise with the views of Clive Lloyd, who feels "it is time to use technology to the full extent".

The former West Indies captain is one of the International Cricket Council's four full-time match referees and he used Monday evening's annual Cowdrey "Spirit of Cricket" Lecture at Lord's as the stage on which to air his feelings.

"If technology is going to be used increasingly to reflect on the performance of the umpires - both by television and by officialdom - surely umpires should also have the opportunity to use it to improve on or supplement their performance," he said.

"How can it be right to ask an umpire to make a split-second decision based on his own eyesight and hearing when everyone else then judges and, if justified - and, sometimes, when unjustified - criticises that decision having made use of technology designed for that purpose?"