About time ICC reviewed the entire DRS operation

India's tour of Australia is set to become memorable in more ways than one. Apart from the ups and downs of the players' performance from both sides in the first two Tests, what has been firmly put under the scanner in the Decision Review System of the International Cricket Council applicable to all top level games.

The DRS coming under fire is nothing new. But what is disturbing is the question that it has forced some of the legends of the game to ask.

The contentious business of "umpire's call"!

Indian great Sachin Tendulkar feels the review has been taken in the first place because player(s) were not happy / satisfied with the decision of the on-field umpire. Sticking to the same decision without conclusive proof either way makes a mockery of the entire exercise.

Sounding a similar note is Australian leg-spin legend Shane Warne, who wants to know how the same video can have to two contrasting results depending upon what the on-field umpire felt about it earlier. Warne opines that leg before decisions should be given "out" even if the ball-tracking shows the stumps being only brushed.

That firmly puts the entire ball-tracking business under the scanner. 

From laying the "pitch mat" to running the video through the computer to simulate further movement of the ball (including path as well as height of flight) everything is done by humans who are prone to errors. 

After all, playing out the video replay before the time has elapsed denying India a legitimate review can be brushed aside as human error then it may be worth noting that technology dependent upon human intervention can be anything but fool-proof and beyond reproach.

The powers that be in the ICC need to start brain-storming all over again with the available technology and how best to put it to use. Blindly borrowing technology from other sports hardly helps, even though it may have been tweaked to suit cricket. 

What cricket needs is technology especially developed to cater to the subtle nuances of the game before being pushed into operation.

Before that ICC needs to get sensitised to the pit-falls of the DRS operation Only then can the game move ahead unhindered.

If not, it may be better to stick with neutral umpires, whose services have been dispensed with for this series at least due the Covid-19 pandemic restrictions on international travel.

Restoring confidence of players and fans is the responsibility of the people at the top. ICC needs to move and move fast before the public turns away!

Business as usual for BCCI as SC defers hearing to late January 2021

There seems to be absolutely no hurry in the Supreme Court with regards to the Board of Control for Cricket in India which goes about its business as usual with the annual general meeting scheduled to be held on December 24.

BCCI has a filed a slew of seven applications in the SC to amend certain statutes in the new constitution crafted by the court-appointed Justice RM Lodha committee to go into the reforms of the India's national cricket body.

Obviously the member states were forced to fall in line as well even though some sought the SC's indulgence to deal with matters as per their own convenience. But with disbursement of funds being the major bargaining tool, the SC appointed amicus curae managed to get most to fall in line.

The two most important changes sought by the BCCI are Rule 45, which stipulates that any changes to the constitution must be ratified by the court, and the other relates to the length of terms in office along with the mandatory cooling off period.

There's all likelihood of the SC bench keeping the ratification intact, but the tenure and how the terms of office at the state and national levels be not counted consecutively and instead be kept separate from each other would be the BIG one.

The amendment to the terms of office allows the current set of office-bearers, led by BCCI president Sourav Ganguly, two more years at the helm.

Given their performance in the current uncertain and tough times, especially holding an incident-free Indian Premier League off-shore, would definitely strengthen their case. And the way Team India was selected and made to travel together for tour of Australia shows pretty mature planning as players across the formats were able to get over the quarantine and other logistical restrictions as a single unit says a lot about BCCI's approach.

Compared to the reverses suffered by England,who had no option but to abandon their tour of South Africa mid-way, and Pakistan players being served an ultimatum by New Zealand for repeated breach of quarantine restrictions, Team India's off-field journey has been a fairly smooth ride so far.

And even the results in the limited overs games were not too bad. But the sublime capitulation at Adelaide against the pink ball seems to have overshadowed all else. 

The reverse, coupled with the fact that the side has to face Australia in the remaining three Tests without skipper Virat Kohli, can serve as a wake-up call where the youngsters would be expected to stand up to be counted.

In fact, BCCI boss Ganguly would be hoping for nothing less as he himself as captain had gone about revamping the image of Team India being easy pushovers when playing away from home.

But before the action begins in the Boxing Day Test at Melbourne, BCCI is, more likely than not, expected to have handed Ganguly and secretary Jay Shah a second term, as the SC bench has directed that the petition be listed for the next hearing not before the third week of January 2021.

The first thing to be decided has nothing to do with cricket per se, but a point of law - can the present two-judge bench hearing the case make changes to the order (constitution) passed by a three-judge bench. 

Only then can BCCI's seven applications be taken up for arguments and final disposal. But since the SC bench has agreed to hear the application, there is no bar on BCCI at the moment about going about its affairs unfettered!s

Life inside a bio-bubble can be a real test for sports-persons

Indian cricket players went into the bio-secure bubble around mid-August to get ready  for the 13th edition of the Indian Premier League played in United Arab Emirates.

Made necessary by the global Covid19 pandemic, the move has indeed helped the world of cricket slowly but surely limp back to some kind of action which looked well nigh impossible not very long ago. 

Team India is in Australia till well into January 2021, while England is visiting South Africa and Pakistan and the West Indies are touring New Zealand.

No sooner are Indian players back home from Down Under that they need to welcome England for a near-full series - 4 Tests, 3 one-day internationals and 5 Twenty20 internationals. As per the announcement by the Board of Control for Cricket in India president Sourav Ganguly, the itinerary was tweaked by mutual consent to replace a Test match with two extra T20s to prepare for the ICC T20 World Cup scheduled later in 2021.

It is more than obvious that no cricket playing nation wants to miss out on the action. So much so that Pakistan players have stayed put in New Zealand despite more than one breach on quarantine norms and nearly 10 players testing positive for the virus. A stern warning from the hosts and reading the riot act by the visiting team management is hoped to bring things under control by the time its their turn to face the Kiwis.

But one things cannot be emphasized enough!

Life inside a bio-secure bubble is tough, to put it mildly. Lack of one-on-one interaction makes people start getting edgy and no amount of phone calls, both audio and video, can replace the feeling of the simple human touch. It's something humans crave for and, though players are together as a team, nerves do begin to fray and sparks can fly at the flimsiest of reasons.

It needs an extremely mature handling on the part of all concerned ... players, support staff,  administrators. 

Cricket is one of the few sports that has seen near full-scale international resumption. 

To some extent football showed the way in Europe but the rest of the globe has been unable to match the precautions needed for successful conduct of games. Formula One did manage to nearly complete their annual calendar without any major disruption but the same can hardly be said for Olympic sports.

With the Tokyo Games looming in July, there is hardly any sporting activity worth a mention. Several sports including boxing, wrestling and track and field have yet to even finalise their qualification processes.

The bio-bubble can, at the very best, be a short-term solution. The isolation begins to take a toll beyond a point and obviously performance takes a severe beating.