Sachin Tendulkar, the legendary cricketer, has been a lifelong watcher of the game and continues to do so, even after 12 years of international retirement. Tendulkar stays up to date on the latest rules and changes in playing conditions, and he pays close attention to cricket matches across the world, particularly those played by the Indian team.
Tendulkar stated on Reddit that the Umpire’s Call in the Decision Review System (DRS) should be removed.
During an open conversation, the 52-year-old solicited questions on his personal Reddit page, and one fan asked what cricket rule he would want to see modified. The cricketer was quick to comment, stating that DRS, which has been deployed with extensive use of technology, has flaws. As a result, whenever ball tracking indicates an umpire’s call, the decision should be based purely on whether the trajectory shows the ball hitting the wickets.
“I would change the DRS rule on Umpire’s Call. Players have chosen to go upstairs because they were unhappy with the on-field Umpire’s Call. Hence, there should be no option to go back to that call. Just like how players have bad patches, umpires too have bad patches. Technology even when inaccurate will be consistently inaccurate,” Sachin said on the famous social media forum.
“One thing I don’t agree with, with the ICC, is the DRS they’ve been using for quite some time. It is the LBW decision where more than 50% of the ball must be hitting the stumps for the on-field decision to be overturned. The only reason they (the batter or the bowler) have gone upstairs is because they are unhappy with the on-field decision, so when the decision goes to the third umpire, let the technology take over; just like in tennis – it’s either in or out, there’s nothing in between,” he had said in a video chat with West Indian luminary Brian Lara.
For the trivia, Sachin Tendulkar is the first cricketer in history to be declared out by the third umpire. Making his debut during the late 1980s, the Mumbai-born has seen multiple transitional phases, and thus, it will be interesting to see if ICC actually takes his advice into account.
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