Saturday, September 3, 2011

DRS = Dravid Removal System

They couldn't manage to get him out easily. So they have found an ally in the DRS, which from now on will be referred to as the Dravid Removal System. It happened in the Oval test 2nd innings, and it happened again in the 1st ODI at Chester-Le-Street. England appeal for an edge catch. The field umpire disagrees, England call for DRS. Hotspot shows no mark. There could or could not be a deflection, depending on the camera angle and the viewers' bias. Yet Dravid is given out. 

Which again brings me to question the DRS system itself. What we have learnt is technology is not perfect. What we have also learnt is all the boards with BCCI in fore-front have forgotten the basic reason for the existence of DRS. The idea was to for players to redress umpiring howlers. It wasn't meant for close calls. The boards have blundered with the system, making it too complex and with different sets of rules operating in different venues. Right now 3 different series are going on. All have different DRS operating rules. For a single game that is the most ridiculous situation you can get into.

My suggestion would be simple. Remove the reviews from the players hands. Make the 3rd umpire more pro-active. Instead of just reviewing things when he is called for, he can step in himself. So wickets of no-balls, inside edged LBWs and other such howlers can be easily eliminated, which was what the DRS was for in the original place. Don't think ICC will ever listen though.

P.S. in other India news, Sachin Tendulkar & Rohit Sharma are out injured. Ramesh Srivats on twitter has created an excellent injury news report here. I believe that England must be practicing some form of voodoo or black magic on our players.

P.P.S. 16.3-10-8-6. Figures of Pragyan Ojha playing for Surrey against Northamptonshire in the county championships. Wonder why he is not in the Indian team.

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