Australia’s Tour Of Sri Lanka: DRS Will Be Used

After reports had suggested that the Sri Lankan cricket board, Sri Lankan Cricket, will not be using the Decision Review System for the series against Australia, there has been a turnaround. The board has now announced that the review system will be used for the series against Australia, which will see three Test matches, five ODIs and a T20I being played in August.

Earlier, the reports had emerged because of the costs associated with the use of DRS. The Sri Lankan board is struggling to keep afloat with their huge debts, running into millions of dollars after the World Cup. The DRS, which uses the Hot-Spot and the Snick-o-meter costs around $5000 for each day of its usage and the Sri Lankan board had announced its intentions of cutting costs earlier.

However, the chairman of Sri Lankan Cricket’s interim committee, Upali Dharmadasa, announced over the weekend, "The use of DRS is a priority for us, since the decision was taken during the ICC annual conference in Hong Kong, to use it in all series, which all the members agreed to.”

The ICC had earlier said that the use of DRS will be mandatory from October 1, which had meant that the Sri Lankan board could get away with its non-usage.

It remains to be seen whether the series will also use the Hawk-Eye or the Virtual Eye, both used for deciphering the predicted path of the ball and are helpful to adjudicate on the lbw decisions. However, given their predictive and approximate nature, the ICC have refrained from making them mandatory for use.