rahul1117kumar
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Ever since its inception, the Decision Review System (DRS) has been a hotbed of debate. Statistics suggest that decision-making has been better off by a noticeable margin with the system in place. However, it's a classic case of not being able to please everyone. That and the difficulties in acquiring certain technologies leave the DRS with some loose ends.
International Cricket Council's (ICC) general manager of cricket operations, Geoff Allardice, acknowledges the situation and confirms that there's much work to be done. "I look at matches in different parts of the world, and I see the different levels of technology and you see umpires are left without conclusive evidence in one series where in another series they might have conclusive evidence with all tools available," Allardice notes.
He further adds, "There are some logistical challenges as well about having every type of technology in every match but I think overall we should be striving for a more consistent delivery of technology at all international matches."
Standardisation of the system would be the eventual goal and a recent thumbs up from Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), albeit on a trial basis, should come as a shot in the arm towards achieving the objective.Allardice said India coach Anil Kumble was "instrumental" in assessing the upgraded DRS and his support proved to be pivotal in using the technology in the upcoming England series.
Kumble, in his capacity as chairman of ICC's Cricket Committee, had gone to Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where engineers worked on the upgraded technology of DRS, which largely helped him convince BCCI to come on board for the England series.
"I know he's [Anil Kumble] been part of the ICC Cricket Committee for I think for 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.
"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.
"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," Allardice said.
According to Allardice, one of the elements which can't be compromised is the edge-detection tool. "Ball-tracking is standard in DRS at the moment, and we won't see that changing. I think you certainly need an edge-detection tool as a standard. If you go back to times gone by with the umpires listening to the stump microphone audio and trying to judge whether that was the sound of bat on ball or bat on pad or whatever, it was very difficult to make a decision [for the umpire] and also for the people watching at home to know what the umpire was thinking. And sound-based edge detection systems like Realtime Snicko and UltraEdge have simplified those kinds of decisions," Allardice said.
Another tricky angle is the impact DRS has on umpires. Does having decisions overturned affect them?
"One of the skills of an umpire at all levels, whether there is DRS or not, is his resilience to mistakes. In the old days, you used to find out when you came off the field whether you had made a mistake or not, and now that feedback is a little bit more immediate," Allardice said. "And being able to process feedback about your decisions, and then try to either use it to improve your decision-making, or to not let it affect your decision-making, is the thing that determines an elite umpire from the next level down."
All these aspects are sure to be mooted across the table when the ICC cricket committee meets with the member boards in February 2017.
ICC striving for standardisation of Decision Review System - Cricbuzz
International Cricket Council's (ICC) general manager of cricket operations, Geoff Allardice, acknowledges the situation and confirms that there's much work to be done. "I look at matches in different parts of the world, and I see the different levels of technology and you see umpires are left without conclusive evidence in one series where in another series they might have conclusive evidence with all tools available," Allardice notes.
He further adds, "There are some logistical challenges as well about having every type of technology in every match but I think overall we should be striving for a more consistent delivery of technology at all international matches."
Standardisation of the system would be the eventual goal and a recent thumbs up from Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), albeit on a trial basis, should come as a shot in the arm towards achieving the objective.Allardice said India coach Anil Kumble was "instrumental" in assessing the upgraded DRS and his support proved to be pivotal in using the technology in the upcoming England series.
Kumble, in his capacity as chairman of ICC's Cricket Committee, had gone to Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where engineers worked on the upgraded technology of DRS, which largely helped him convince BCCI to come on board for the England series.
"I know he's [Anil Kumble] been part of the ICC Cricket Committee for I think for 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.
"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.
"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," Allardice said.
According to Allardice, one of the elements which can't be compromised is the edge-detection tool. "Ball-tracking is standard in DRS at the moment, and we won't see that changing. I think you certainly need an edge-detection tool as a standard. If you go back to times gone by with the umpires listening to the stump microphone audio and trying to judge whether that was the sound of bat on ball or bat on pad or whatever, it was very difficult to make a decision [for the umpire] and also for the people watching at home to know what the umpire was thinking. And sound-based edge detection systems like Realtime Snicko and UltraEdge have simplified those kinds of decisions," Allardice said.
Another tricky angle is the impact DRS has on umpires. Does having decisions overturned affect them?
"One of the skills of an umpire at all levels, whether there is DRS or not, is his resilience to mistakes. In the old days, you used to find out when you came off the field whether you had made a mistake or not, and now that feedback is a little bit more immediate," Allardice said. "And being able to process feedback about your decisions, and then try to either use it to improve your decision-making, or to not let it affect your decision-making, is the thing that determines an elite umpire from the next level down."
All these aspects are sure to be mooted across the table when the ICC cricket committee meets with the member boards in February 2017.
ICC striving for standardisation of Decision Review System - Cricbuzz
