Tendulkar wants third umpires to take a call
mumbai— Terming the introduction of Decision Review System (DRS) in a a bilateral series in India a “positive step”, cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar on Monday has suggested that the third umpire should be the one directing the onfield umpire to overturn any decision instead of the players
He said that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) can adopt it (DRS) on permanent basis if they are convinced with the modified review system and called for the technology to be standardised across the world.
The Indian Cricket Board last month ended its long-standing opposition to the Decision Review System, and agreed to its usage on a trial basis during the ongoing home Test series against England.
“If BCCI have studied well and they are convinced with this (modifications in DRS), then why not, I think it’s a positive step,” he said in an interview with the Mid-day daily.
“The whole thing was about having consistency everywhere in the world... because I noticed that one change - snickometre 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,” he added. “So whichever match you are playing, one should not be asking okay what will be happening, is snickometre available or Hotspot available (or not), it should be standardised,” reckons the scorer of most runs in history of Test cricket.
The 43-year-old Tendulkar said that DRS was all about getting the decisions right. “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.”
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
Sachin Tendulkar