June 17, 2008	Tuesday	Jamadi-us-Sani 12, 1429

NEW DELHI, June 16: An experimental rule allowing players to seek a second opinion on umpiring decisions will be put on trial during India’s upcoming series in Sri Lanka, officials said on Monday.

The rule says a batsman or fielding captain may request the review of any decision taken by on-field umpires by referring it to the third official monitoring television replays.

Each team will be allowed three unsuccessful review requests per innings.

But if an umpire reverses his original decision after a review appeal, the benefiting team will be allowed an additional appeal.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) decided to trial the review in March, but it had to be put off after England and South Africa failed to reach an agreement on it for their Test series next month.

The Indian cricket board said in a statement on Monday that the new rule will be used during the three-Test series against Sri Lanka starting in Colombo on July 23.

A player can make a request for a review by making a ‘T’ sign with his hands and if the TV umpire rules in the player’s favour, the on-field umpire will have to overrule his previous decision.

The rule will apply for all modes of dismissals except ‘Timed Out’ when an incoming batsman is given out if he takes too long to arrive at the crease after the fall of the previous wicket.

The TV umpire will be entitled to use slow motion replays from all available cameras, sounds from the stumps microphones and the Hawkeye system for tracking the trajectory of the ball.

So far, only the on-field umpires determine if a decision needs to be passed on to TV officials.

But growing concerns about the standards of umpiring have led for calls for increased use of available technology and forced the ICC to try the new system.

A similar experiment in English domestic one-day cricket last season was widely regarded as unsuccessful with the third umpire generally reluctant to over-rule his colleagues out in the middle.—AFP