‘Howzat’—how do artefacts without matter, matter? The case of decision review systems in professional cricket

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/ntwe.12086
• Author: Patrick Dawson,Ian McLoughlin
• Published date: 01 July 2017
• Date: 01 July 2017

© 2017 Brian Towers (BRITOW) and

John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Decision Review Systems in cricket 131

New Technology, Work and Employment 32:2

ISSN 1468-005X

‘Howzat’—how do artefacts without matter,

matter? The case of decision review systems

in professional cricket

Ian McLoughlin and Patrick Dawson

It has been argued that the social and material worlds are

increasingly entangled as they become mediated by and

experienced through virtual representations of live events.

Virtual decision review systems in professional sport provide

an albeit unusual case study example of such developments

where virtual (re- )representations of events are increasingly

used in match play to inform adjudicator decisions concerning

‘what really happened’. This has prompted an ongoing debate

in many sports over both the accuracy and appropriateness of

these technologies for representing events which are often fast

moving and difficult to judge with the human eye. We explore

these issues using a sociomaterial practice lens and indicate

the broader relevance of the case for basing judgements and

decisions on virtual views of reality.

Keywords: virtual reality, decision-making, sport, sociomaterial,

practice-based, virtual organisation.

Introduction

The sports industry is a now significant global business sector worth billions of dollars in

gate, media rights, merchandising and sponsorship revenues (PWC, 2011). It provides

significant employment around the globe for players, match officials and many others

required to maintain an international sporting calendar. However, the nature of work in

the sector has not been extensively studied outside of the sports management specialism

(Byers, 2015), and especially in relation to technological change. One area that has received

attention is the role of professional sports players as ‘entrepreneurs’ and ‘innovators’ in

the development of new equipment and products, especially in relation to the broader

lessons that can be learnt for ‘user- led’ innovation (Flowers and Henwood, 2010; Raasch

et al., 2010; Byers, 2015; Ratten and Ferreira, 2017). However, the implications of new tech-

nology in the form of digital and electronic systems and data have yet to attract the same

level of interest, despite being recognised by students of sports management as being in

the process of transforming both, ‘the practice and business model’ of many professional

sports (Collins, 2010; Anderson and Salley, 2013; Davila and Foster, 2015: 35).

Ian McLoughlin, (ian.mcloughlin@monash.edu) is Professor of Management at Monash University,

Melbourne, Australia and a visiting professor at the University of Warwick, UK. He has published

widely in the areas of new technology, innovation and organisational change most recently concerning

digital government and the digitalisation of healthcare. He is currently leading a major Australian re-

search project ‘Towards the health care system of the future’. Patrick Dawson, (patrick.dawson@adelaide.

edu.au) is Professor of Change, Innovation and Creativity at the University of Adelaide, Australia and

an Emeritus Professor at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, UK. He has an extensive publication list

of over 60 refereed journal articles, 12 books and 50 book chapters. In 2005 he was awarded the ongoing

position of Distinguished Member of the Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management.