Change in DRS rules proposed by ICC cricket committee

The ICC cricket committee lead by Indian coach Anil Kumble met in London on May 23 and 24 to discuss several issues of international cricket. One of the major proposals that came out of the meeting stated that the teams should not lose their reviews if the decision by DRS involves an on-field umpire’s call. The propositions of the meeting will be discussed in the ICC chief executives’ meet and can be in effect by October of this year.

The meeting saw the presence of the ICC Cricket Committee including Anil Kumble as the chairman, Andrew Strauss, and Mahela Jayawardene as past player representatives, Rahul Dravid as current players representative, Darren Lehmann, Adrian Griffiths, umpire Richard Kettleborough among the others.

The most effective consequence of this proposal will be on the LBW decisions. A team losing a DRS challenge because of the original decision of the umpire will not lose the review then. In Test matches currently, each team gets two unsuccessful reviews for every 80 overs. In ODIs, it is limited to one per innings. However, if this rule comes into play the renewal of the reviews in Tests after 80 overs will not take place.

The LBW decision referred to DRS depends on the umpire’s call on only some peculiar circumstances. If a batsman refers an original out decision, the DRS will check first whether the ball hits the stump. If more than half of the ball hits the stumps then the decision will be out. If less than half of the ball hits the stump, the decision will then depend on the on-field umpire call. In this case, the decision will remain out and the review by the batsman will be lost. The review will be successful only if the ball completely misses the stump and the decision will be reversed to not-out.

Many other suggestions were put forth in the meeting by the committee. One of them was the inclusion of DRS in the T20Is with each team getting one review per innings as the ODIs. The Pakistan Super League incorporated the DRS system for 3 of their matches which were the first use of DRS in T20s. It is yet to be introduced in the international arena. If the chief executives’ meet has positives for the decision, the system could be seen taking place from October.

The committee also discussed the issue of starting the system of Red cards for players in international cricket. This move was initiated by the Marylebone Cricket Club to regulate the proceedings at lower levels of crickets. But it could be an effective tool for the umpires to send off players from the pitch on accounts of misconduct and misbehaviour.

There was also a run-outs proposal made by the committee. It stated that if in the case of a runout if the bat has touched the crease and bounces up later it would not be given out. The current rule suggests if the bat pops up after it crosses the crease and the bails are taken off at that moment it would be considered to be out.