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Journalism of Courage
ICC chief executive officer Haroon Lorgat on Wednesday said that the ICC remained convinced of the UDRS (Umpire decision review system) and called upon the BCCI,which currently opposes the system to adopt it.
The UDRS system,as you know,has been trailed for sometime and we believe we have now got it perfected. I am confident that in due course the BCCI will join us on a visit to Australia to explain the technical application of the system and will see the merits of it. At the moment they still have doubts about the reliability of the system which is something we will try and convince them. The majority of players across the world are convinced by application of the system and I am sure in due course the BCCI and its players will feel the same, he said.
Speaking at a press conference,Lorgat admitted that there were kinks in the system initially as well as not enough of the equipment to go around but that eventually all these would be ironed out.
Boards will decide
There was a trial period which we went through. There were a lot of issues at stake before we could make the system mandatory. We are still in that period where we believe the right option is to let the host board decide whether they have got the equipment available and everything in place to apply the system. Even for the World Cup we dont have sufficient hotspot cameras to use as much as we want to,said Lorgat adding that the decision of utilising (UDRS) would remain in the hands of the host nation board. This would mean the South Africa Cricket board in the upcoming India -South Africa Test series.
Mum on Raina issue
Lorgat though refused to comment on reports that the ICC was investigating Suresh Raina accompanying a woman who allegedly had links with bookmakers. He said that even if the ICC was pursuing an investigation,the issue would not be discussed.
There are two fronts which we do not speak and that is to protect the confidentiality of the player or the commercial partner. In terms of any such reporting around players or ACSU we do not discuss in a public forum and that is to protect the confidentiality of the players. The protocol is simple. We speak regularly to the boards and the boards speak to us and that is going on right now, he said.
However he added that there was a need to accredit player agents to prevent individuals like Mazhar Majeed from representing players. It is a matter for domestic boards but I can tell you that that all of us in respect to corruption we approach a zero tolerance policy, he said.
He was reacting to reports in Sunday Times of London that the ACSU is probing why the Indian Cricket Board kept quiet about a report of Raina being seen in the company of a woman linked to an associate of an illegal bookmaker during his teams visit to Sri Lanka in July-August early this year.
The report has been rubbished as “false and baseless” by the BCCI.
