Senaka Decision Review System (SDRS)- Why Not?
An Appeal to All Cricket Lovers in Sri Lanka
It is high time that Sri Lanka Cricket ( SLC) made representations to the ICC to rename the Decision Review System ( DRS) as the Senaka Decision Review System ( SDRS), in due recognition of Sri Lankan Lawyer Senaka Weeraratne who first initiated this system, by writing to the Australian Papers in 1997.
There is not a single published article suggesting a Player Referral in Cricket or, in any other sport, before his letter to the Editor of "The Australian".
All available evidence is that Senaka’s letter was the first to suggest a Referral System for Cricket. It appears there was no such system or mechanism even in other Sports, prior to March 25, 1997.
The mechanism is similar to the review of a lower court decision by an Appeal court judge and, being a Lawyer himself, Cricket enthusiast Senaka Weeraratne suggested this idea to overcome criticisms against Umpiring decisions floating around the cricketing world for a long time. In fact, in the good old days, when there was a questionable decision by an umpire, unhappy spectators used to shout “Umpire Hora”, which literally means te umpire is a rogue. Now, such allegations against field umpires are not heard, at least at international matches.
I request all Sri Lankan Cricket lovers to read an article published in The Papare. com on the subject, which explain Senaka’s rightful claim to authorship of the ‘Player Referral’ mechanism which is the lynchpin of the DRS. I quote:
“Generally, all inventions carry the name of the founder. In the case of rain- affected One- Day International Cricket, the nomenclature ‘Duckworth & Lewis’ method is used because it is a system wo rked out by 2 Englishmen ( Frank Duckworth and Tony Lewis). Why is it not the same with the DRS? Is it because the man who conceived and, for the first time in the world, wrote and published the essential ingredients of the ‘ Player Referral’ mechanism, which became the foundation of the DRS, in leading international cricket Journals and newspapers, as far back as March 1997, is non-white? Senaka Weeraratne from Sri Lanka has been fighting for justice since his brainchild came to be used in Cricket. His request for an impartial investigation and proper hearing by an independent 3rd party arbitrator, has not even been considered.”
As Cricket lovers of Sri Lanka, we appeal to Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) officials and the Ministry of Sports to step in and make representation to the ICC, to recognise Senaka Weeraratna’s brainchild and rename the term as Senaka Decision Review System ( SDRS). It would be a great honour not only to the initiator Senaka, but also to Sri Lanka.
The Sunday Times has decided to dedicate this column to its readers so that they can comment about contents in our sports columns and features and also write their own thoughts on various sports with letters to the editor. Their views however are not necessarily those of the newspaper.
Rohan Abeygunawardena