Tendulkar: Third Umpire should intervene to overturn a decision

The BCCI had softened their stance after a long-time opposition to DRS and adopted it in the ongoing series against England. This came after a lot of observations and suggestions from coach Anil Kumble and Test skipper Virat Kohli. 

Sachin Tendulkar embraced the Board's move and said, "If BCCI have studied well and they are convinced with this (modifications in DRS), then why not, I think it's a positive step," reported PTI.

He added, "The whole thing was about having consistency everywhere in the world... because I noticed that one change - Snickometer in one part of the world and the other part of the world was Hotspot.

"There was no uniformity. When you play Test cricket, there are certain things (which) need to be standardised everywhere in the world and when DRS is actually now as good as part of, norm of cricket, literary into that, then it should be standardised everywhere in the world."

"So whichever match you are playing, one should not be asking okay what will be happening, is Snickometer available or Hotspot available (or not), it should be standardised."

Tendulkar, who had proposed many new innovations to make cricket more interesting like 14-member school cricket, two-innings one-day match and more, has called for a new rule to give the third umpire the power to overturn any decision made by the on-field umpire. 

Citing the dismissal of Cheteshwar Pujara in the first Test at Rajkot, where Pujara didn’t go for a review although replays later showed that the ball had missed the leg-stumps, Sachin said, "See after (Cheteshwar) Pujara's decision (in the Rajkot Test), few questions were raised and people spoke about whether the decision should (have been given)... even if batsman doesn't ask and umpire has given out and in the reply it showed that you know it had pitched down the leg, I feel it won't be a bad idea for the third umpire to intervene there, because eventually, DRS is all about getting decisions right.

"And consistently right (as far as possible). So you got to find ways to get decisions right and they should be working as a team - all three umpires, on-field umpires and the third umpire. The whole system was introduced for consistency in taking decisions and if we can get that, then we would have achieved our goal," he concluded. 

When players like Kumble, Ganguly and Tendulkar have welcomed the DRS, it appears only a matter of time before the BCCI adopt it on a permanent basis.