CHANDIGARH: Two days after the International Cricket Council made a presentation regarding improvements in the decision review system, the BCCI on Friday agreed to use it on a trial basis during India’s upcoming Test series against England.
In 2008, India and Sri Lanka played the first ever Test series with the DRS system, but since then, the BCCI and the team have been sceptical about the technologies used. They were particularly against the ball tracking system — Hawkeye — as the two parties believed it wasn’t foolproof. Apart from ICC events, the BCCI never used DRS in any matches that the team played, the lone exception being the 2011 series in England, where except LBW, they used referrals for other dismissals.
However, ever since Virat Kohli took charge as captain of the Test side, he has been open to the idea of using DRS. Even the current coach Anil Kumble, in his capacity as chairman of the ICC Cricket Commitee, had a close look at the improvements made to the ball tracking technology, with the help of the MIT.
With Ultra-Edge added to ball tracking, the ICC believed that the system is far more foolproof than ever before and the BCCI seems to have been impressed.
“Manual intervention to set the impact point has been controlled by the introduction of the ‘Ultra-edge’, which has been approved by MIT and will help in determining the frame of impact. Ultra-Edge also ensures that post impact balls do not affect the predicted path or impact point and hence the accuracy has been improved” the BCCI said in a release.
Thakur, who was present at the meeting when ICC made the presentation alongside Kumble and Kohli, said, “We are happy to note that Hawkeye has institutionalised all the recommendations made by BCCI, and we confirm that this improved version of DRS will be used on a trial basis during the forthcoming series against England. Based on the performance of the system and the feedback that we receive, further continuation in forthcoming series will be decided.”
Why is DRS more effective now?
Ultra-motion cameras
The introduction of ultra-motion cameras, capable of capturing up to 340 frames per second, has eased BCCI concerns about the accuracy of calculating the predictive path on ball-tracking software. The Ultra-Edge system — also known as 'Real-Time Snicko' — which marries the ultra-motion footage with audio to
locate the exact point of impact, was also seen as a vital step. This came into effect as part of the DRS package some 12 months ago. Earlier, camera speed ranged from 50 to 75 frames per second.
Less human error
A built-in redundancy to the Hawk-Eye system (meaning all balls are recorded) to ensure no deliveries are 'missed' due to operator error or the system being busy, has also reassured the BCCI.
What could change for ICC?
ICC chief executive Dave Richardson had said earlier that India's refusal to use the DRS was a major stumbling block to the creation of a central fund to cover the cost of using the DRS to ensure uniformity across all international cricket. A successful trial and adoption by India would remove this stumbling block.
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