Stuart Law, Heath Streak Call for Change in DRS
Nov 3, 2017 at 3:08 PM
Following the contentious decisions during the second and final Test of the two-match series between hosts Zimbabwe and Windies at Queens Sports Club in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe chief coach Heath Streak and his Windies counterpart Stuart Law raised some pertinent questions regarding the minor changes in Decision Review System (DRS).
“To only be able to use (the DRS) for two incorrect appeals, I think, is ludicrous considering that you had $400,000 worth of machinery around and you can’t use it,” Law was quoted as saying by Cricket Australia.
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After little over a month, the world cricket body International Cricket Council (ICC) approved the laws on the field after tweaking the rule which included DRS which has had been a debatable topic on the cricketing front among the analysts.
With teams having two reviews available per innings, it’s important to figure out that unsuccessful review won’t be considered (restart) again after the completion of 80 overs like it happened in the recent past.
“To me, that doesn’t quite make sense. But we’ve got to be smarter and understand that we do only have two reviews,” Law added.
The statements came after Zimbabwe salvaged pride, as the Test match was drawn against Windies led by all-rounder Jason Holder.
The international coaches requested for the change in gentleman’s system by pleading for more than two reviews in an innings.
However, the international coaches are also aware of landing into massive trouble while working under the ambit of Dubai-based ICC.
“I probably can’t comment on that because I’ll get into big trouble,” Law maintained.
So much so, both the coaches somewhat criticized the rule which was revamped.
Admitting the fact, former Australian top-order batsman Law revealed the umpires tend to make mistakes while believing the humans are bound to err.
“From my understanding, the technology has been incorporated to stop the absolute howler. Umpires are human and they make mistakes, we all do,” Law asserted.
On the other side, the former skipper of Zimbabwe Streak reiterated there is no solid reason to restrict the review to two in number only while hinting what’s the fun of spending the staggering amount of money to use the technology for DRS.
“If you’re going to spend that much money, I think four or five reviews should be necessary to get the correct decisions. I don’t see any reason why they should limit it to only two,” Streak said.
Meanwhile, the 31-year-old right-handed batsman Sikandar Raza was the top scorer for Zimbabwe in the second innings.
The promising batsman Raza scored 89 off 203 deliveries which further saw gloveman Regis Chakabva remained unbeaten on 71 off 192 balls to frustrate the Windies bowlers, as Holder used as many as eight bowlers.
As reviewing gets very tough on the field for players, the few decisions went in Zimbabwean’s way and similarly, Windies also enjoyed a couple of decisions following host being poor at deciding for reviews.
“Our poor use of reviews in this Test is something we will have a look at,” Cremer concluded.
At one stage, Zimbabweans were reeling at 46 for four but were saved by lower order who resisted with skipper Graeme Cremer remaining not out after facing 150 balls to score 28.
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