 "BCCI to decide on DRS after ICC October meeting: Thakur")
The Indian cricket board is open to using the Decision Review System (DRS) and would take a final call after the board meeting of the game's apex body, the ICC, in Cape Town later this month, BCCI chief, Anurag Thakur, said on October 3.
"In the Sri Lanka series, I made an official statement that BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) is open about DRS. The issue is whether the technology is 100 percent. Are you sure about the 100 percent decision making as far as DRS is concerned?" Thakur asked, while speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the second India-New Zealand Test at the Eden Gardens.
He said further that the BCCI crickert committee sought a report from the MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) regariding the DRS technonology.
"There were shortcomings and that is why, in the ICC, we have told the cricket committee to look into the DRS and MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) was supposed to give a report. Even in our Edinburgh meeting (the ICC annual conference in July) this year, they could not come to a conclusion where they are fully satisfied with the DRS technology," he said.
Thakur will be attending a meeting in Cape Town in the second week of October, wherein the performance of DRS will be looked into, adding that the BCCI was open to it depending on outcomes from latest trials and their feedback.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) had earlier this year commissioned the MIT-one of the world's leading technology institutes-in its bid to zero in on a uniform decision review system. The MIT was asked to give a report by studying the various systems in place around the world like those for edge detection and ball tracking.
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Thakur questioned whether the technology, endorsed by the India Test captain, Virat Kohli, before the Eden Test, is an improvement on the decisions made by the on-field umpires.
"Improvement is all right. Because if umpires are making 95-97 percent decisions as right decisions, and you're getting the same with DRS, then what is the change? So the only issue, if not 100 percent, is that how much better (is the technology in decision-making) than a field umpire."
Regarding how the judgement willbe made, Thakur said that the the BCCI is open to a feedback on the DRS from the Indian team that will be taken into consideration at the October meeting.
Thakur asserted the board was not opposed to implementing the technology in India or because of a provision that makes the technology dependent on the host boradcaster and not the ICC.
"Once you make up your mind that you're satisfied with the technology, then you can use various things like you want to use in each and every format at home or overseas or anywhere. We are very open about it. It all depends upon team management and our satisfaction," Thakur said.