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Journalism of Courage
India have hinted at finally easing up on their defiant stance against the decision review system. They, in fact, could even be willing to compromise on their demand for 100 per cent accuracy if the umpires’ call element was done away with.
The DRS debate has followed the Indian team whenever they’ve left their shores. And there has forever been an apprehension among the Indian camp that marginal decisions go against them, and that they wouldn’t have been over-turned even if DRS was employed simply because of the umpires’ call element, which is in place mainly to defend the decision of the on-field umpire.
“We have reached a point where if the umpires’ call part is not there, we might be ok with the DRS being put in place,” said a source.
The BCCI has come under immense flak around the world for its obstinacy regarding the discrepancies of the DRS. It has echoed the demands of Dhoni & Co for the system to be a foolproof one where there is 100 per cent accuracy in terms of results. But it has always held that its aversion for the DRS was based entirely on its players’ distrust in it. And that its decision on whether or not to use the review system during India’s matches would depend squarely on its players. “We’ve always said that we’ll go with whatever our players want. If they are in favour of DRS then there’s no reason why we won’t accept it,” a board official confirmed.
At the receiving end
Already in the ongoing series, India have been at the receiving end of a few obviously incorrect decisions. Shikhar Dhawan was given out caught in Adelaide after being hit near his shoulder, Ajinkya Rahane similarly was dismissed after the ball hit his pad while Cheteshwar Pujara was adjudged caught-behind after being struck on his helmet grille by a Josh Hazlewood bouncer in the first innings at the Gabba.
All these decisions could easily have been over-turned in case the basic form of DRS was in place, without the umpires’ call aspect or even the predictive technology.
On Saturday, MS Dhoni explained the exact reasons behind his team’s foreboding over referring umpiring decision. “There are a lot of 50-50 decisions that are not going in our favour. We are at the receiving end more often than not. And in DRS, even when it is around, those decisions they won’t go in our favour. Because if the umpire has given out, you take DRS, it is still out, because DRS is often used to justify the decision given by the umpire,” he said.
“What is important is to use DRS to give the right decision irrespective of whether the umpire has given it out or not out,” Dhoni added.
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