At ICC meet,umpire decision review goes India’s way

ICC’s decision on Monday was a marked change from the stand adopted during its chief executives committee meeting in June in Hong Kong when the modified version of DRS — that included infra-red cameras and audio tracking technology — was made complusory in all international matches. The BCCI had also come on board during the June meeting.

ICC Chief Executive Haroon Lorgat said in a statement,“We will continue to work with interested parties to improve the system,while permitting the participating teams to decide whether they wish to use it or not. This was a board decision that came out through a considered debate and eventually there was unanimity that we need to revert and let those who are comfortable in using it,use it,and those who are not have the option to decide not to use it. This decision is a recognition that Hot Spot was not as reliable as we’d have liked it to be,” Lorgat told reporters following a two-day ICC executive board meeting in Dubai.

The executive board said it would continue using the DRS in its global events. Lorgat,however,dismissed the idea that the BCCI had forced its decision on the other members.

BCCI president Srinivasan had made it clear that they would oppose the mandatory use of DRS at the executive board meeting. “The BCCI will,at the next ICC meeting,raise the issue. We want to revisit it because we feel that Hot Spot is insufficient. We do not wish to use the DRS in its present form,even in its minimum standard,” Srinivasan had said.

Uncertainty over championship

The ICC also said that the decision on whether or not a world Test championship would start in 2013 would be delayed while it sought agreement from its commercial partners. The governing body has a contract with broadcaster ESPN STAR Sports which includes the coverage of the Champions Trophy tournament that year.

“We’ve got existing commitments in terms of the rights agreement with a one-day international tournament that we would need to convert that to a Test format and that has got implications for the broadcast partner,” Lorgat said.

PCB adopts technology

The Pakistan Cricket Board said the system will be used in the upcoming one-day series against Sri Lanka and England being played in the United Arab Emirates.

It has even obtained sponsorship for the use of the technology. “PCB is probably the first cricket board to obtain sponsorship to enable our broadcasters to use the technology in the series,” Subhan Ahmad,chief operating officer of the board,said.