The International Cricket Council on Tuesday bowed to India’s wishes and made the Umpire Decision Review System optional, four months after saying its use was compulsory. The ICC’s powerful Executive Board, which met in Dubai over the last two days, reverted to its original decision of allowing the participating nations in a bilateral series to decide on using the system.
Under the Umpire Decision Review System (UDRS), teams are allowed two television reviews per innings if they feel the on-field umpires have not given the correct decision.
The very influential Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had last month opposed even the partial use of the UDRS, saying the current technology was not suitable. An ICC release on Tuesday said the change had been made “following recent experiences and the resultant concern about the effectiveness of Hot Spot.” “The Executive Board decided to revert to its previous position to allow the participating nations to decide bilaterally whether they wished to use the UDRS,” the release said. “Although the UDRS 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 the 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 UDRS system will, however, continue to be used at all ICC events like the World Cup, the release said. The ICC had at its annual meeting in Hong Kong in June made the UDRS compulsory for all international matches, if the host board could afford the costs.