Ending its long-standing opposition to the Decision Review System (DRS), the BCCI on Friday agreed to implement it on a trial basis during the upcoming test series between India’ and England starting next month.
It’s a Diwali miracle! @BCCI agrees to use #DRS for the India-England series on a trial basis to ‘assess improvements’ #INDvENG pic.twitter.com/5raAZ4DZ0c
— ScoopWhoop News (@scoopwhoopnews) October 21, 2016
“The Board of Control for Cricket in India will deploy the Decision Review System, in toto, in the forthcoming series between India and England starting from November 9 2016, on a trial basis to evaluate the improvements made to the system, over a period of time,” the Board said in a statement.
Here’s why BCCI agreed to DRS pic.twitter.com/WE5ROVGF9R
— Ashish Magotra (@clutchplay) October 21, 2016
The BCCI and India’s limited-overs skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni have long opposed the system. But the Board’s stance has softened after Test captain Virat Kohli and coach Anil Kumble expressed their openness to experiment with the technology.
Kumble, who heads the ICC Cricket Committee, visited the MIT Laboratory last year to assess the upgraded research on ball tracking technology and the contentious Hot Spot, which had been called unreliable by the BCCI in the past.
If @anilkumble1074 with his sharp engineering mind thinks ultra-motion cameras make the predictive path in DRS accurate enough, that’s fine
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) October 21, 2016
The last time India used DRS
in July-Aug 2008 in SL (Captain: Anil Kumble)Now in Nov-Dec 2016 in Ind (Coach: Anil Kumble) #IndvEng
— Mohandas Menon (@mohanstatsman) October 21, 2016
India had last used the DRS in a overseas test series against Sri Lanka in 2008.
The Board, in a recent meeting with the ICC and the Hawkeye officials, said improvements made to the system were further evaluated by the BCCI team.
The Board said that it was “satisfied” that most of the concerns and suggestions that were expressed by it over a period of time, were “addressed to a significant extent”.
The significant changes, which have been effected, include the introduction of ultramotion cameras that will calculate the predictive path a ball, thereby making ball tracking more accurate.
India to use DRS in the England test series. Brilliant news this. @ashwinravi99‘s wicket count will rise by 15%.
— Srini Mama (@SriniMama16) October 21, 2016
Another change suggested by the regulator was regarding the the introduction of ‘Ultra edge’, which has been approved by MIT and will help in determining the frame of impact.
“Ultraedge also ensures that post impact, balls do not affect the predicted path or impact point and hence the accuracy has been improved,” the BCCI stated.
“Earlier, there was a possibility that the operator would have missed a delivery and hence an LBW appeal could have been missed. Now, Hawkeye has developed the technology to record and save all images so that in case an operator fails to arm the tracking system, the images can be rewound and replayed.”
The Board said additional cameras have been installed to ensure there is “redundancy and a 100 percent reliable spin vision for DRS”.
