Calcutta: Pakistan umpire Aleem Dar, who was Monday named the Umpire of the Year for the third time in a row at the International Cricket Council’s annual awards, has called for consistency in the use of Decision Review System (DRS).

Dar said that the umpires have a hard time getting familiar with the use of technology since it is currently not used in its entirety in every series. “It becomes difficult for umpires if the DRS is used in one series and not in the other… Conditions vary from country to country,” said Dar.

According to the current ICC rules, only partial use of the DRS is mandatory in every series. While the use of infra-red cameras and audio tracking technologies have been made compulsory, the use of ball-tracking technology depends on the agreement of the teams during a series.

India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni had recently questioned the accuracy of the technology after Rahul Dravid was controversially given out during the first ODI of the ongoing series against England. The ICC, too, had acknowledged that “minute number of errors” in DRS have been detected and that they are monitoring it closely.

Dravid was controversially given out despite television replays not showing any edge off the bat during the Chester-le-Street ODI.

Dar won the David Shepherd Trophy for being the Umpire of the Year for the third time on Monday night.

Dar, who is 43, was voted to this award by the 10 Full Member captains as well as the eight-member Emirates Elite Panel of ICC Match Referees, based on his decision statistics and officiating skills over the past 12 months.

Dar, who accepted the award from ICC Hall of Fame 2011 inductee Alan Davidson, said: “It’s a great honour and I’m thankful to everyone at the ICC and also my colleagues on the Emirates Elite Panel of ICC Umpires along with the Pakistan Cricket Board. I’d like to also thank all my family for all their support since I’m away nearly eight months of the year umpiring.”

Dar, widely regarded for his umpiring standards, beat off strong competition from his colleagues on the Elite Panel of ICC Umpires — Steve Davis, Ian Gould and five-time ICC Umpire of the Year Simon Taufel.