The thought of getting rid of square leg umpire is ridiculous. It not only takes a human element out of the game, but also overlooks the point of having two umpires for one game. If you get rid of one umpire, it means you will be left with only one umpire to officiate the game. Referral of every run out decision to 3rd umpire is time consuming, and very disruptive. Square leg umpire also gives bouncer notice and calls no ball on beamers. One umpire will barely have the energy to officiate during the whole match. And I don't like the idea of having two umpires for two sessions of a ODI match either. Square leg umpire can also assist the main end umpire in solving various issues. I believe Darrel Hair once called Murali for chucking even though he wasn't at the bowling end. Although it's not the best of examples, cricket would have been shy of a controversy should there had been no square leg umpire in the first place. But that's not the point. Who calls for the 3rd umpire most of the time? It's the leg umpire who does that. If you don't have him officiating there, every single run-out, stumping incident would have to be referred upstairs, which is ridiculous.
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