No UDRS for New Zealand series - BCCI

The BCCI secretary and president-elect N Srinivasan has said that the board remains opposed to the Umpiring Decision Review System (UDRS), despite the dodgy calls that marred the closely contested Mohali Test between India and Australia.

"As of now, I can tell you that we are not thinking about using the [system] for the New Zealand series [that follows the Australia series]," Srinivasan toldAAP, putting to rest speculation that the BCCI could relent on its anti-UDRS stand.

India emerged victorious by the closest of margins after a pulsating match which had more than its share of umpiring controversies. Michael Hussey and Gautam Gambhir got rough decisions on the fourth day, that altered the momentum of the game. On the final day, with India 11 runs away from a win, and Australia needing two wickets, Ishant Sharma was adjudged lbw to a ball sliding down the leg side. Five runs later, Pragyan Ojha survived a close call that could have given Australia the match.

"Umpires are human beings and they can make errors," Srinivasan said. "Rather than stressing on the wrong decisions given, we should be happy that India have won the Test match."

Ricky Ponting, the Australia captain, reaffirmed his support for the system after the match. "One thing I know about the system so far is that you definitely get more correct decisions in a game of cricket than you do without it," Ponting said. "There's no doubt, take this Test match alone, with the use of the system here I think we would've have a lot more right decisions in the game." 

India's antipathy towards the UDRS stems from their experience in the 2008 tour of Sri Lanka, where they were hurt by a failure to make proper use of the, then nascent, system. The system used in Sri Lanka was Virtual Eye, while the broadcaster for the Australia - India series, Neo Sports, uses Hawk-Eye, a competing technology.

Since then, both technologies have been used extensively in other countries and helped weed out clear umpiring errors, if not always providing conclusive evidence for touch-and-go decisions.

In recent times, some of India's players have softened their stand, with Virender Sehwag and Zaheer Khan expressing their support for the reviews, though the majority, including captain MS Dhoni and Sachin Tendulkar, remains sceptical.

Extract From : Cricinfo © ESPN

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