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MUMBAI: Cricket's controversial decision review system (DRS) will no longer be mandatory and its use will be left to bilateral agreements between participating boards, the International Cricket Council (ICC) said on Tuesday.
“Although the DRS improves correct umpire decisions by around five per cent and corrects any blatant errors, there are some who are not convinced by its reliability,” ICC Chief Executive Haroon Lorgat said in a statement.
“We will continue to work with interested parties to improve the system while permitting the participating teams to decide whether they wish to use it or not.”
The ICC, at its annual conference in June, had made the use of Hot Spot technology - which indicates the ball's point of contact - mandatory, subject to availability, and left the use of ball-tracking technology up to the playing boards.
The ICC had even won over the Indian cricket board (BCCI), which had strongly opposed the ball-tracking technology in DRS, with its modified version which allows teams to challenge umpire decisions.
The modified version of DRS, minus the ball-tracking technology but including Hot Spot, was used during India's recent tour of England but drew flak for inconsistent results.
The ICC's executive board, which met in Dubai on Monday, said it would continue using the DRS in its global events and would support the use of technology and its continued development.
The change in the ICC stance on DRS followed criticism by the BCCI's new president N. Srinivasan last month.
“The BCCI is not averse to technology. We did not believe in the ball-tracking technology at all,” Srinivasan said at the time. “So therefore, at the last meeting of the ICC in Hong Kong, we agreed to a minimum usage of DRS including Hot Spot.
“At the time, we were under the impression that Hot Spot was very good. It is not necessary for me to dwell on the accuracy of Hot Spot, it was there for everybody to see.
“We do not wish to use the DRS in its present form, even in its minimum standard,” said Srinivasan, adding that he intended to raise the issue at the ICC meeting.
