Even before calm could be restored after the epic clash between India and England, another storm, it seems, is brewing between two different factions now. In a letter directed to Mr. Haroon Lorgat, the chief executive of the ICC, BCCI secretary N. Srinivasan has once again raised questions regarding the continued practice of referring to the Umpire Decision Review System (UDRS).
The BCCI, in the letter, explains its staunch stand against the UDRS by asseverating that the presentation made by Hawk Eye to BCCI was not convincing and the supplier of the technology themselves felt that a “leap of faith” was necessary in order to accept the system.
The criticism comes in the wake of an incident in the match between India and England where an lbw decision against Ian Bell, given not out initially, was referred. Although the replays suggested the ball would go on to hit the stumps, the fact that Bell was well forward (over 2.5 metres as per the rule) helped turn the decision in his favour and he was allowed to stay, even though he had started walking on seeing the replays. Hence, the BCCI has raised questions over the validity and reliability of this technology.
In the letter, BCCI has also taken strong objection to the ICC representative David Richardson criticising MS Dhoni for highlighting the faults in the system in front of the media, without fully knowing the rules. Richardson made these comments after Dhoni called the system an “adulteration of technology with human judgement” in the post match press conference. Richardson was scathing in his disapproval of Dhoni’s remarks and conveyed his point of view on the matter to an Indian news channel.
BCCI not only expressed displeasure over Mr. Richardson’s remarks in the letter but also believed that “for ICCs representative to criticise a player for his post match press conference while the World Cup is being played tantamount to pressurising the player.”
Although the BCCI did not request an apology from the ICC, they do ask Cricket's Governing Body to ensure that its representatives refrain from speaking to the media in such a fashion in the future.
