Melbourne: The Decision Review System is now implemented, starting from the ongoing test series between Pakistan and New Zealand and ICC’s Cricket Operations Manager Dave Richardson is of the view that the controversial system will not only aid the umpires in making better decisions but will also make a lot more batsmen walk when they edge a ball.

The system, which has been heavily opposed by the cricket boards of South Africa and India, due to the heavy costs involved in its implementation, will give the players a right to appeal against the on-field umpires’ decision.

“I quite like the idea of putting a bit of responsibility on them, they are very quick to shake their heads and wave their bat around when they get an inside edge,” Richardson told reporters in Brisbane. “Let’s see how brave they are when it comes to actually taking that responsibility. Initially when we spoke, we thought a possible indirect benefit might be that batsmen, when they do edge a ball, won’t hang around and will walk anyway because they will be inevitably given out in the long run and they might be shown up as, not cheats, but certainly not playing within the spirit.”

Richardson also pointed out that the correctness of the decisions improved by as much as six percent during the 11-test trial of the DRS and the instances of unnecessary and excessive appealing also reduced.

“We’ve found in the trials that the vociferous appealing, and appealing when you know it’s not out, just to try to convince the umpire has seemed to go out of the game,”  said Richardson. “What’s worse for the game, Steve Bucknor’s effigy getting burnt in India from a bad decision or the opportunity to rectify his mistake and hopefully improving the spirit by saying to the players: it’s your game, your responsibility. You hit it, you walk, if you don’t think its out, don’t appeal.”

Asked on the growing concern that the technology would undermine the authority of the on-field umpires leaving them as mere puppets on the field, Richardson said that with the kind of coverage and replays available to the audiences, use of technology has become imperative.

“Unfortunately in this day and age, the guy’s not out when the umpire raises his finger, he’s out when Ian Chappell or Mark Nicholas says he’s out,” Richardson said. “It’s so important for the person at home watching on television to understand that we are still not going to get 100 per cent of the decisions right, because there are going to be some decisions that aren’t conclusive from the technology point of view. The obvious ones we’ll eradicate.”

Tagged with: Dave Richardson, DRS, ICC, Melbourne

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