Decision Review System needs review: Waqar Younis

Pakistan head coach urges ICC to make amendments in the system to avoid controversies

Pakistan head coach Waqar Younis has urged International Cricket Council (ICC) to reevaluate the Decision Review System (DRS) as it only sparks controversies which is not good for the game.

His comments came after Pakistan clinched a thriller against England at Dubai in the second Test.

Waqar believes that the margin needed to reverse the on–field call should be reduced from more than 50 percent to 25-30 percent.

"I strongly believed this 50 percent formula is not fair to the players," Waqar told ESPNcricinfo.



"They should even it out a little bit by making it 70/30 or 75/25. If the ball strikes you inside the line, 25 percent it should be given out rather than making a verdict on the basis of 50 percent.

"Sometimes a decision is not out when it is hitting 49 percent [of the stump], even though you are convinced that it is hitting flush. So that sparks frustration, this whole mechanism needs to be tweaked.

"Even if it's hitting the stump 30 percent, it should be given out rather than applying Umpire's Call and a 50 percent margin. We don't mind playing with DRS but the important factor is it should involve all elements, otherwise it will kept on leaving out a lot of controversy."

In the on-going series between Pakistan and England, half UDRS – which costs £6,000 less per day, according to ESPNcricinfo, due to no HotSpot and Snickometere - is being used to reduce the expense, and Waqar thinks it does not make much sense.



"This half-DRS is not acceptable and the system like this doesn't make any sense," he said.

"You either don't have it or have it complete. Some decisions look very ugly and that is why people complain. We have witnessed big blunders and I think the ICC should take care of it and it should be the one body controlling it uniformly for all.

"Sometimes one bad decision can affect the entire game like we had in Abu Dhabi. I have already met with the ICC and suggested that they revisit their parameters. They have agreed to some extent and I hope this will be considered at their cricket committee meeting."

ICC (International Cricket Council), recently pointed out that DRS have been put in place to overturn clear mistakes made by the on-field umpires, and not close calls.

From April 1 till September 30 this year, ICC revealed that only 179 decisions were reviewed out of 899, which is only 35% of the total decisions made during that period.

According to the ICC statistics, it indicates the on-field umpire decisions accuracy rate has risen up to 99.1 percent, which was 95.6 percent before the use of DRS.

The article was originally published at ESPNcricinfo.com