The International Cricket Council (ICC) has finally done away with the contentious ‘soft signal’ by on-field umpires, putting an end to years of confusion among cricketers and supervisors of the game.

That, along with mandatory wearing of helmets for high-risk positions and allowing runs scored off a free hit even when the ball hits the stumps were the recommendations from the Sourav Ganguly-led Men’s Cricket Committee ratified by the Chief Executives’ Committee on Monday. The changes to the playing conditions will come into effect from 1st June this year with the Lord’s Test between England and Ireland.

A long-standing issue between players and umpires, the soft signal was used by on-field umpires while referring catches taken close to the turf to TV umpires with their take on whether they thought it was taken cleanly or not.

According to ICC rules, a "soft signal is the visual communication by the bowler's end umpire to the third umpire (accompanied by additional information via two-way radio where necessary) of his/her initial on-field decision prior to initiating an Umpire Review."

In real-time, however, it’s almost impossible to ascertain the validity of such catches from the naked eye, rendering the soft signal just short of a hunch that the TV umpire had to abide by despite inconclusive TV footage replays.