Srinivasan still believes the DRS is flawed and inaccurate
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president Narayanaswami Srinivasan has announced that the national team may refuse to play series where the opposition insist on using the Decision Review System (DRS), according to a report published by ESPNcricinfo.
The report also revealed that at the recent International Cricket Council (ICC) executive council meeting in Dubai, Srinivasan shot down the favourable policy of having the DRS implemented in series if the host country agreed to using the technology.
The report added that England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) chairman Giles Clarke was the only person to vote in favour of the suggested policy.
“Srinivasan’s concerns are understood to still centre on a belief that the technology could be easily manipulated and is unreliable,” the report said. “It has been learnt that he made the claim that India would pull out of bilateral series if a system was in place where the home side could insist on the DRS.
“Though the DRS issue was not even listed on the agenda, or in the post-meeting press release dispatched, it was discussed at length in the wake of a renewed push during the ICC chief executives committee (CEC) meeting last month, for universal implementation of the referral system.
“At that meeting, held on December 4, every member with the exception of India had backed a change in the DRS implementation policy.”
The current rules state that both nations playing a series have to agree to the implementation of the DRS, otherwise it will not be used and all decisions will be left to be made by the on-field umpires.
However, the report said that the CEC had called for a swift conclusion to the ongoing dilemma and wanted all Full Member nations to vote during the executive board meeting.
But, this resolution was abandoned after a majority of the Full member nations refused to stand up to Srinivasan and the BCCI.
“In the end there was no vote as most of 13-man strong board (10 Full Members plus three Associates) failed to stand up to Srinivasan,” the report added. “Only Clarke, who supported the CEC recommendation, felt it warranted a discussion this week again.”