The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has decided that the knockout matches in the Ranji Trophy tournament from this season onwards will see the usage of “limited” DRS.
Notably, the limited DRS version will not comprise Hawk-Eye and Ultra-edge, which are the two essential elements of the system used in international cricket.
Last year, poor umpiring ruined the Ranji Trophy season. The most eye-catching umpire howler last season was when Cheteshwar Pujara was ruled not-out despite a huge nick and then the batsman, riding on his lifeline, went on to hit a century and changed the course of the Ranji Trophy semi-final between Saurashtra and Karnataka.
Regarding the need of DRS in such important matches, BCCI’s general manager of cricket Saba Karim confirmed the development to ESPNcricinfo and said: “Last year, in some of the knockout matches, there was some flak on umpires because there were some terrible howlers.”
“So we want to avoid all that and use whatever help we can get. For the knockouts in Ranji Trophy matches, we will utilise all the technology available to us as a means to apply the limited DRS to help the on-field umpires make the correct decision,” he added.
The CoA, had in June this year, approved the decision to use limited DRS.
In order to get the best out of the available technology, Karim said that he would have a “brainstorming session” with the match officials, including umpires and referees, along with the board’s broadcasting team
“We are just trying to use it as an experiment just to see how much it can be useful to domestic cricket,” Karim said, adding, “We will use whatever cameras we can use to come to the right decision.”
(With inputs from IANS)