Former Pakistan captain Aamir Sohail has called on the ICC and member boards to enforce the use of the Decision Referral System (DRS) in Tests and one-day internationals. Sohail insisted that the controversies surrounding the DRS in the ongoing Test series between India and England made it obvious that it must to be used in every international match. “The system is not 100 per cent accurate as we have seen but if it can help reduce human errors by even 60 to 65 per cent it would be very effective for the game,” Sohail said a television interview. The former chief selector also said he had no doubt that the DRS has been a good addition to international cricket. “But what bothers me is that there are still issues over its use across the board by all broadcasters with the help of all available technology,” he added. Sohail said he couldn’t understand why the referral system was not being used for LBW decisions in the India and England series. The ICC at its last executive board meeting in Hong Kong made the DRS mandatory but left it up to the boards to decide on the use of some of the technologies such as ball tracking (hawk-eye) in bilateral series. The ball tracking technology is not being used in the India and England series and the hot spot technology has also come under the scanner after suggestions that the use of artificial substance on the bat reduces the chances of hot spot catching faint edges. Sohail said the ICC should make it mandatory for the broadcasters to use all available technology and not leave it to boards to decide in bilateral series. “Look, as far as I am concerned the DRS has been a good value addition to cricket in many ways. It has also added a new dimension of suspense to the game as spectators and viewers love it when referrals are made to find out the outcome,” he said. Sohail said that the ICC would have to take a firm and universal stand on the use of DRS to make it more effective. “Either use it with all available technology across the board or scrap it and depend on the umpires. Then there will be human errors, which is natural,” he said.
