ICC must rethink DRS
It was not the most memorable Ashes series in living memory but it did throw up big moments in which individuals excelled with their skills on the pitch or controversies off it in the form of what seemed a terribly misguided referral system.
It was fitting that the series ended with light meters in the hands of bungling officials whose errors made many a talking point.
The urn remains in England, winner of a third successive Ashes and four of the last five, which is itself a big shift in the balance of cricketing power. But neither England, nor conquered Australia, nor even the West Indies, once undisputed Test champions, nor India is at the top of the Test merit table, a position enjoyed for over a year now by South Africa.
The series threw up many questions about whether the Decision Review System is good for the game. Once seen as a happening and new tech-guided way to render better justice than delivered by umpires suffering the distinct touch of “human error” in decision-making, the weaknesses of Hot Spot and related gizmo-driven systems were exposed starkly.
India’s objections to the predictive elements of the technology in assisting on-field umpires may have been logical. It’s now up to the ICC to take the parts that work best and promote a system that will give a greater degree of accuracy without bringing in the factor of technology errors to add to the game’s woes in the form of more image hits.
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