IPL 2018
IPL 2018: Rajiv Shukla Gives Green Signal For DRS
By CricShots - Mar 21, 2018 2:06 pm
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On Wednesday, the chairman of the Indian Premier League (IPL), Rajeev Shukla has confirmed the news that the Decision Review System (DRS) will, for the first time, be used in the upcoming 11th season of the Indian Premier League. The decision makes the IPL, the second T20 league in the world, after Pakistan Super League (PSL), to use the technology to reduce umpiring howlers.

DRS
IPL 2017 winners – MI

In the recent press conference in Mumbai, Shukla said, “Yes, this idea has been going around for many years.” He also confirmed that confirming that the TV replay system will be utilized if a team challenges an umpiring decision.

Also read: BCCI held DRS workshop for umpires

It’s a vital step for BCCI, which has been hesitant in its enactment of technology. It was only in 2016 that the Indian cricket board agreed to use DRS in a home series for the first time, when England came touring for a five-match Test series.

Rajiv Shukla

The decision to use the DRS in IPL 2018 reportedly came after the board held a meeting in Visakhapatnam last December, where the top ten domestic umpires were summarized about the technology by Denis Burns, the ICC umpires’ coach and former Australia pacer-turned umpire Paul Reiffel. The decision is expressly remarkable given the dubious standards of decision-making by the on-field umpires in the IPL 2017, leading to several obscure calls.

Also read: BCCI Not In Favor Of Transforming Champions Trophy’s Format

BCCI’s stand on the DRS has been widely criticized, as the board was contending that unless the system in place was 100 percent foolproof, they would not favour it. Shukla was speaking to the media after announcing that the IPL has inked a three-year deal with Tata Nexon as its partner, declaring there was “great synergy between IPL and Tata Nexon.”

The BCCI’s major doubt lay in the ball tracking technology wherein the path of the ball could be misleading. However in the later months with the HawkEye creating UltraEdge and increasing the frame rates per second, the Indian cricket board is said to have warmed up to the use of technology.