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Mumbai: The International Cricket Council may be upbeat about the effectiveness of the Decision Referral System but apparently has not been able to convince the boards to accept it of late.
While India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni was unsure whether the controversial DRS system would be in place during the two-Test series against hosts Bangladesh later this month, a BCCI employee indicated it would not be in use.
Queried about it during Friday's press conference on the eve of the team's departure for Bangladesh, Dhoni said "I'm not sure" and looked for help from BCCI's corporate relations manager Devendra Prabhudesai who indicated it would not be in use.
The DRS, which Dhoni said is supported by the teams when things go their way and opposed when thing go against them, was not in use during the India-Sri Lanka three-match Test rubber held in this country recently.
The decision of the ICC, whose CEO Haroon Lorgat feels it's good for the game as it not only reduced umpiring errors but also improved players' on-field behaviour, not to use it during the India-Lanka rubber was criticised by visiting team skipper Kumar Sangakkara.
"It supports making the correct decision and the fundamental of this system is to ensure that we don't have absolute errors in umpiring decisions," Lorgat said.
"I believe players would begin to realise that this should be used when there is a poor decision, not something marginal. Not in cases where they will say, let's see if we can get away with it," he said.
"This series is probably the best advertisement for having the review system. When decisions cost us over 500 runs and a lot of wickets, it always put lots of pressure on any side," Sangakkara had said after his side was beaten by an innings in two out of three Tests by India.
DRS has its critics in senior India batsman Sachin Tendulkar, the West Indies captain Chris Gayle and retired umpire Dickie Bird, among others.
Tendulkar experienced it first-hand when India toured Sri Lanka last year and lost the Test series while Gayle was not amused by it when his side was defeated in Australia late last year.
It remains to be seen whether ICC is able to dictate terms to BCCI and implements it during the India-South Africa two-Test rubber which is set to take place next month.
