BCCI Accept To DRS Sans Hawk-Eye Technology
After months of discussion and veiled cajoling, the BCCI have finally accepted the need to allow the Decision Review System to be used in international cricket. In an increasingly isolated environment, the final blow to BCCI’s chances of stalling the system from being made mandatory came when the boards of Pakistan and West Indies, not too financially well-off agreed to make a costly technology like Hot-Spot mandatory.
Running out of excuses and with no other board seeing eye-to-eye on the DRS issue, the only face-saving formula that the ICC could offer BCCI was to have Hot-Spot and Snick-o-Meter being made mandatory instead of the earlier predictive technology.
BCCI blinked and the DRS will now be mandatory for all international Test and ODI matches, although, the use of Hawk-Eye (or Virtual Eye) as predictive technology will be non-mandatory and will be left to the discretion of the boards involved in the series.
Ironically, it was one of the BCCI vice-presidents, Niranjan Shah, who had opposed the use of Hot-Spot, citing its cost as a huge barrier. Shah had explained, “You have to look at the economics. Every board is not making money out of Test matches and ODIs. The system requires about $60,000 per match. Last year, about 65 Tests and 170 ODIs were played around the world. Multiply those numbers with $60,000. It would be a staggering amount for one or two decisions in a match.”
Incidentally, Shah had got his figures wrong because the cost associated with the DRS is $5,000 per day or $25,000 every Test match at maximum.
What this means is that the much-vaunted series between the number one and the number three ranked sides in the world, India and England, will use DRS to decide on the edges through to wicket-keepers and the inside-edges in case of lbw. However, without the use of predictive technology, there will be no using the DRS for adjudicating on lbw decisions.
India begin their tour of England from July 15, with their first Test from July 21 at Lord’s in London.
