Bullish BCCI once again threatens ICC over the use of DRS

Birmingham: Decision Review System (DRS), the much-debated technology doesn’t come cheap, at a whopping cost of $6,000 per day for a two-camera set-up and a further $10,000 for a four-camera set-up - with additional costs to include the Hot-Spot - the DRS is quite an expensive tool to use.

The BCCI has always maintained that this kind of money was too expensive for a system that could not guarantee 100% efficiency. 

Hardening its stand over the implementation of the umpires' Decision Review System (DRS), the BCCI has threatened to "unilaterally terminate" the Future Tours Programme (FTP) agreement if India is forced to use the technology in a bilateral series. 

The BCCI has been opposing the DRS on the ground that it is not 100 per cent reliable. The latest FTP runs from May 2012 to April 2020. FTP is an eight-year schedule for the 10 Test-playing countries, chalked out in such a way that all the teams play against each other, both at home and away. 

However, a few Boards like the BCCI have badly abused the FTP over the years and it has happened not only in Srinivasan's regime, but even earlier. 

The BCCI's imprint can clearly be seen in the current FTP. None of the 10 Test nations has any Test or ODI series slotted in September and early part of October when the BCCI-organised Champions League T20, the global version of the IPL, is usually played.

This year's CLT20 will be played from September 17 to October 6. The lop-sidedness of the FTP is also evident from the fact that between 2012 and 2020, India is scheduled to play only two Tests and three ODIs in Bangladesh, in 2015, and none at home against them. 

India, in fact, have never played a Test against Bangladesh at home since that country got the Test status in 1999. ICC has a reason to worry about the DRS. It has estimated that if the DRS-related sponsorship is successfully exploited, when fully implemented, it can raise revenues up to $15 million. 

The BCCI, however, is adamant. It says that the technology is not fully reliable and has refused to take the "leap of faith". ICC CEO David Richardson recently apprised the ICC Executive Board about the BCCI's rigid stand over the DRS. 

The ICC has, on another occasion recently, termed the "failure of members to comply with FTP commitments and scheduling priorities" as one of the top 10 "risks and mitigating strategies".