Pakistan coach Waqar Youni, has criticised the inconsistency of the Decision Review System (DRS), and believes that the margin of doubt for 'Umpire's Call' should be increased from 50 to 75 per cent.
“The current set-up, is allowing match officials to be complacent in their decision-making,” said Waqar in an interview to ESPNCricinfo.
An umpire's call decision is currently given when the TV replays suggest that an lbw decision is too marginal to be overturned.
Waqar believes there is unnecessary importance given to different parameters - pitching point, point of impact with batsman's body, and whether the ball is hitting the stumps.
Currently, if the umpire rules an appeal as not out and less than half the ball is shown to be hitting the stumps, the decision will not be changed.
“I strongly believed this 50 per cent formula is not fair to the players,” Waqar said.
“They should even it out a little bit by making it 70/30 or 75/25. If the ball strikes you inside the line, 25 per cent it should be given out rather than making a verdict on the basis of 50 per cent.”
“Sometimes a decision is not out when it is hitting 49 percent [of the stump], even though you are convinced that it is hitting flush. So that sparks frustration, this whole mechanism needs to be tweaked,” the 43-year-old added.
DRS technology is being used during the on-going Pakistan England Test series, although without the use of HotSpot and Snickometer, because their addition would increase the daily cost to about $6,000.
The third umpire is strictly prohibited from discussing whether or not a particular appeal should be given out or not, as DRS requires irrefutable evidence to overturn a decision.
However, with half of the technology in use, Waqar believes DRS doesn't makes any sense.
“This half-DRS is not acceptable and the system like this doesn't make any sense,” he said.
“You either don't have it or have it complete. We have witnessed big blunders and I think the ICC should look into the matter and it should be the one body controlling it uniformly for all.
“Sometimes one bad decision can affect the entire game like we had in Abu Dhabi. I have already met with the ICC and suggested that they revisit their parameters. They have agreed to some extent and I hope this will be considered at their cricket committee meeting,” Pakistan's head coach said.
