Limited DRS in Ranji Trophy a superficial move to protect Boardās reputation, states BCCI official
The Committee of Administrators has given the green signal to allow certain aspects of DRS in the knockout stages of Ranji Trophy for the upcoming season. However, a BCCI official has slammed the move saying efforts should be made to improve umpiring the standards instead of covering their mistakes.
Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators have asked the Board of Control for Cricket in India to allow the use of Digital Review System in the knockout stages of Indiaās premium domestic tournament, the Ranji Trophy. The decision was made following heavy criticism of umpires last season that affected the outcome of way too many crucial matches. However, the DRS system will not make use of hawkeye and ultra-edge.
"Last year, in some of the knockout matches, there was some flak on umpires because there were some terrible howlers. So, we want to avoid all that and use whatever help we can get," General Manager of Cricket Operations Saba Karim explained, reported India Today.
Regardless, a BCCI official has made scathing comments saying the move might help take correct decisions but will also help hide umpiring flaws and let the standards of decision making suffer in the lower tiers from where such technology will be absent.
"We are not surprised in the least. This is how things are done these days, in an ad-hoc manner that focuses more on perception than on substance. What is the intent here? Is the intent to ensure a mechanism to resolve bad decisions in the knockouts? What about the other 2010 odd games? Who is taking the ownership of bad umpiring in those games? Where is the effort to improve the standard of umpiring? Classic eyewash this is," the senior official told IANS, reported India Today.
17 years since the formation of the Elite Panel of ICC umpires, only two Indians have managed to earn a spot on it over the years. While Srinivasaraghavan Venkataraghavan served as a panel member from 2002 to 2004, Sundaram Ravi joined the panel in 2010 and is currently Indiaās only representative on the list.
"Questions are raised over the process of examination to recruit umpires. Why isn't that being looked into? A fair examination shouldn't be that big a problem. Then, there is an academy for umpires in Nagpur, who takes responsibility of the functioning of that academy? And how many umpires do we have in the international panel? S. Ravi was the last. So clearly, there is a lack of ownership," the senior BCCI official said.
"After managing to scrape through domestic games, when they are handed duty during the Indian Premier League (IPL), they crumble under pressure. The idea to have Indian umpires in the IPL was to help them experience top-flight games and the pressure that comes with it. But here, they are getting exposed every second game as was seen in this year's matches. So, the same must also be happening in the domestic circuit. Just because it isn't televised, you don't see it," he concluded on the matter.