Lorgat: Referral system is beneficial

by S M February 18, 2009

"The referral system, which Tendulkar experienced first-hand during India's 1-2 Test series defeat to Sri Lanka last year, has improved the rate of giving correct decisions," the Chief Executive of the ICC, Lorgat said.

"The idea is to give sufficient help (to the umpires) to get the decisions correct. We have seen that the correct decisions' percentage has gone up from 94 to 98 per cent with this system in place," the ICC official said.

"Anyway the ICC's Cricket Committee would decide on the matter in May when it meets and put forward their proposal to the Executive Board in June," Lorgat added.

"When I was there in Sri Lanka last time, I did not like the Umpires Referral system. There is still an element of uncertainty in the system," Tendulkar had said here last week.

"I still prefer the hot-spot system to identify the contact between the ball and bat. The LBW decisions are not convincing enough as the Hawk Eye gives a 22-yard view which the new referral system does not agree with ... As to whether the ball would have hit the stumps or not," Tendulkar said.

"The umpire referral system is good for the game, which is aimed at making the game more fair as both batsmen and bowler can refer any controversial decision for its correction," Harbhajan had said in Jalandhar.

"We should never be complacent and see a situation that we got into a few years back. We are having discussions with IPL Governing Council with (chairman) Mr (Lalit) Modi and the others and have offered the services of the ICC's Anti-Corruption Unit," Lorgat said.

"We have zero tolerance for drugs and have signed an Anti-Doping Code (with World Anti Doping Agency)," he said.

Lorgat said, "We have not received any application from the PCB."

"Recently there was only one instance of slow over rate, that too by just one over. We have addressed the issue by taking care of things which lead to the slowing down," the ICC Chief Executive added.