Teams unhappy with an umpire’s ruling can now ask for a video referral of the decision, the International Hockey Federation said in a statement on Monday.

The system, much like the one used in cricket, will be put on trial at the men’s Champions Trophy in Melbourne from November 28, before the world body takes a decision on introducing it at the 2010 World Cup in New Delhi in FebruaryMarch.

Teams will be allowed one referral per match on the decision of umpires to award, or disallow, goals, penalty corners and penalty strokes.

The team captain would be authorised to request a review, and must do it as soon as the incident takes place. If the referral goes in favour of the team asking for it, that team will be allowed one more referral for the rest of the match, the FIH said.

Under the current system, match umpires can already refer decisions to the video umpire if they are not convinced about awarding or disallowing goals.

“The primary purpose of the video umpire is to reduce major errors which may have an impact on the result of a match,” FIH competitions committee chairman Ken Read said in a statement.

“We will review the results of the trial following the Champions Trophy, with a view to having the best video umpire system in place for the men’s and women’s 2010 World Cups,” he said.

ARGENTINA BOOK LAST WORLD CUP BERTH

Argentina earned the last spot available for next year’s Hero Honda FIH hockey World Cup to be staged here from February 28 to March 13, when they beat Belgium 4-3 in the final of the last qualifying tournament in Quilmes.

With the victory of the Latin American country, the full line-up of 12 participating nations now stands completed.

Besides hosts India and Argentina, others to have qualified for the World Cup are Canada, Korea, South Africa, Australia, England, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Pakistan, and New Zealand.

The FIH will announce the pools and of next year’s elite event after the completion of the BDO Champions Challenge I in Salta, Argentina from December 6 to 13.