What is DRS (Decision Review System) in Cricket ?

Cricket: Obligatory ‘Umpire Decision Review System’ scrapped by ICC

Recently, the ICC (International Cricket Council) scrapped the obligatory use of the UDRS (Umpire Decision Review System). The system to be used only if challenging sides consent to it in advance of two-sided engagements.

As per the ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat, the decision made as there are a number of countries that favoured it and others who had concerns over its reliability.

The Umpire Decision Review System (abbreviated as UDRS or DRS) is a new technology based system currently being used on an experimental basis in the sport of cricket. The system was first introduced in Test Cricket for the sole purpose of reviewing the controversial decisions made by the on-field umpires in the case of a batsman being dismissed or not. The new review system was officially launched by International Cricket Council on 24 November 2009 during the first Test match between New Zealand and Pakistan at the University Oval in Dunedin. It was first used in One Day Internationals in January 2011, during England’s tour of Australia. The ICC had made the UDRS mandatory in all international matches but it later decided to end the mandatory use of DRS and now it will be upto both the teams to mutually agree on DRS use. However, the ICC’s executive board made it clear that the DRS would still be part of all ICC events and that they support the use of technology and would continue to work on its development.