The limited use of the Decision Review System (DRS) was always planned for the Ranji Trophy semi-finals and not from the knockout stages, clarified BCCI’s general manager of cricket Saba Karim on Tuesday.
The move to introduce limited DRS comes after the umpires committed some howlers in some knockout games of the previous season. However, the quarterfinals starting on Thursday will not see the use of DRS.
“We are introducing it from the semi-finals. This the first time we have initiated this programme. We wanted to bring it in from the semi-finals and we have done that. It was never meant for the quarter finals,” Karim, also a former India wicketkeeper, said.
“The whole idea is that we wanted to bring in the DRS wherein we can have uniformity for both the games and that will be in the semi-finals. All the four teams have been pitted equally and that would not have been possible before (in quarters),” he said.
The restricted technology for Ranji Trophy semi-finals will not have Hawk Eye and Ultra Edge — two key components of the DRS used in international games.