ICC's General Manager of cricket affairs Geoff Allardice has admitted that Indian head coach Anil Kumble's role was "instrumental" in assessing the upgraded Decision Review System (DRS) and providing the adequate support in its approval process.
Allardice's comments came ahead of India's five-match Test series against England, in which the Board of Control for Cricket India (BCCI) will use the DRS on a trial basis.
"I know he's (Kumble) been part of the pre-committee for I think four years now, and one of the things that he was keen to do when he came on as chairman was to make sure that the technologies that were used as part of DRS were assessed independently and he's driven a lot of that project and it's taken awhile to get to the stage where we've got results of testing, etc," said Allardice while informing that ICC is aiming for a stronger coordination and presence at international matches to oversee the delivery of technology.
Allardice said that the former chairman of ICC's Cricket Committee has been very supportive and played a pivotal role in persuading the BCCI of the benefits DRS technology could bring in cases of contentious umpiring decisions.
"But he has been very supportive of the project. He was also in the ICC Cricket Committee meeting in May last year when the results when the majority of the tests were presented. He was aware of the cricket committee's position, which was that they wanted a more consistent use of technology across international matches," he said.
"The fact that he was subsequently appointed as Indian coach; he obviously has that background going into his coaching position. He's been very instrumental in the process that we've taken with the assessment of technology and the approval process and new technologies and things like that; he's taken a methodical approach. As it stands now, DRS is employed even in those Tests where no edge-detection technology is available whereas India have been playing without DRS even with the required technology available.
That India have agreed to use it on a trial basis against England is a step forward, but ICC's general manager of cricket operations Geoff Allardice knows there is some way to go," Allardice added.
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The BCCI had been reluctant to embrace the DRS, which has long been in play in countries like Australia and England, because of a lack of consistency in technology. Allardice believes upgraded system has certainly convinced the country's cricket board to use it in the upcoming England series, which will kick start from November 9 in Gujarat.
"I think it was an opportunity to talk to the BCCI about what some of those developments have been, and about how some of those developments have probably appeased some of the concerns they have had around performance of the technologies, particularly in the area of ball tracking," stated Allardice.
Stressing upon the improvements that the DRS has undergone since the BCCI had opposed it, Allardice said, "The two of note which you will have seen are the increased frame rate of the cameras, obviously puts more information into each calculation of a predicted path and produces a more accurate result, and the location of the point of impact now has the ultra edge or the sound based system helping them getting the right frame of impact.
The ICC General Manager also emphasized upon the importance of being consistent in the use of technologies across all the series.
"I think when I say "more consistent use of technology," I think having the same type of technology at each match; not the same provider at each match. Because one of the things about technology is that there's always development going into it, and the more people you've got involved, the more ideas that get advanced," he said.
Allardice, however, admitted that there are some logistical challenges for the ICC to make the DRS technology available for every match at the moment.
"It certainly has a lot to add to a DRS system, but there are some logistical challenges around making it available for every match at the moment. But that's something we want to think through a little bit further and have further discussions with the provider. Ball tracking is standard in DRS at the moment and we wouldn't see that changing," he said.