Mumbai, Sep 19: Raising the ante against the controversial Decision Review System in the aftermath of the incidents on the recent England tour, the Cricket Board today decided to oppose the ‘Hot Spot' technology too along with the ball tracking system which it has consistently been against.
“We were extremely reluctant to implement the DRS and had no belief in the ball tracking system. BCCI is not averse to technology and agreed to a minimum usage of DRS including ‘Hot Spot' at the last ICC meeting in Hong Kong,” said N Srinivasan after taking over the reins of the BCCI from Shashank Manohar today.
“We were under the impression that ‘Hot Spot' was very good. It is not necessary for me to dwell on the accuracy of ‘Hot Spot”. It was there for everybody to see.
“The BCCI will raise this issue at the next ICC meeting. We want to revisit it as we feel ‘Hot Spot' is insufficient technology and therefore we would request (ICC) that it be revised. This is the position we will take”, said Srinivasan at the media conference after the Board's 82nd AGM where he took over as its President.
“At the last meeting Mr Manohar had opposed DRS before laying down office and at the next meeting I will do it,” he added.
The BCCI's ire on DRS has increased following the controversial dismissals of India's mainstay on the tour, Rahul Dravid, through ‘Hot Spot'.
In an another incident, V V S Laxman was declared not out by this technology only for former England captain Michael Vaughan to question the batsman's integrity by accusing him of having used Vaseline on the bat's edges to beat ‘Hot Spot' technology.
At the AGM, Sanjay Jagdale of MPCA, Himachal Pradesh's Anurag Thakur and Maharashtra's Ajay Shirke were elected unopposed as secretary, joint secretary and treasurer respectively of the country's richest sports body.
Two new vice presidents - Chitrak Mitra and Sudhir Dabir representing East and Central zones - were also elected without any fight along with Arun Jaitley (North), Shivlal Yadav (South) and Niranjan Shah (West).
The senior selection panel was also recast with 1983 World Cup hero Mohinder Amarnath being the lone new face in the five-man committee replacing Yashpal Sharma from North Zone.
Krishnamachari Srikkanth, of South, would continue to be its chairman while three other committee members - Surendra Bhave (West), Narendra Hirwani (Central) and Raja Venkat (East) were also re-appointed for one more year.
The indications are that Amarnath, son of former India skipper Lala, would take over as the chairman of the panel when Srikkanth's term ends next September along with those of the other three panel members.
Amarnath's place in the IPL Governing Council was taken by outgoing treasurer M P Pandove, a former first class cricketer, while Ravi Shastri would remain as the second cricketer in the BCCI sub-committee which would be headed by Rajiv Shukla, Srinivasan said.
Srinivasan also said that Sunil Gavaskar had stepped down from the chairmanship of the Technical Committee and would be replaced by another former India skipper Saurav Ganguly after getting his consent to accept the post. PTI
