RAJEEV Shukla, the chairman of the IPL, confirmed last Wednesday that the Decision Review System (DRS) will, for the first time, be used in the upcoming season of the Indian Premier League (IPL).
The decision makes the IPL, the second T20 league in the world, after Pakistan Super League, to incorporate technology to reduce umpiring howlers.
It’s a significant step for BCCI, which has been reluctant in its adoption of technology. It was only in 2016 that the board agreed to use DRS in a home series for the first time, when England toured for a five-match Test series.
The decision to use the system in IPL 2018 reportedly came after the board held a meeting in Visakhapatnam last December, where the top ten umpires from the domestic fold were briefed about the technology by Denis Burns, the ICC umpires’ coach and former Australia pacer-turned-umpire Paul Reiffel.
The decision is particularly noteworthy given the questionable standards of decision-making by the on-field umpires in the tenth season, leading to several dubious calls.
BCCI’s stance on the DRS has been widely debated with the board arguing that unless the system in place was 100 percent foolproof, they would not favour it.
The board’s major mistrust lay in the ball-tracking technology wherein the path of the ball could be misleading. However, in the later months with the HawkEye creating UltraEdge and increasing the frame rates per second, the Indian cricket board is said to have warmed up to the use of technology. (CricBuzz)
