Cricket: Countries get to call shots on new system

Haroon Logart. Photo / AP

Just when you thought the Decision Review System was about to become part of the international cricket furniture, it's not.

The International Cricket Council has done a backflip on their June decision to implement the DRS across test and ODI cricket and instead passed the baton back to individual countries to make their own call in bilateral series.

The most likely situation for New Zealand is that it won't happen on their tour of Zimbabwe, which starts with a T20 in Harare early on Sunday (NZT), but might well be in place for the two-test series in Australia in early December.

The ICC, at its annual conference in Hong Kong, listed infra-red cameras and audio tracking as basic DRS requirements.

However India, who have been implacably opposed to the DRS since being involved - with disastrous results - in the first series to use the equipment in Sri Lanka in 2008, won't budge in their condemnation of it as unreliable.

"There are quite a number of countries who favour it, and there are some who have got concerns about it's reliability," ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat said.

Hot Spot was shown to be dodgy during India's calamitous tour of England in the middle of this year, during which they lost all four tests, the only three of five ODIs to get a result, and the only T20 match.

Hot Spot is now off the list of basic requirements for the DRS, Lorgat describing that as recognition that it "was not as reliable as we would like it to be".

So the responsibility goes back to individual countries. Both must agree for it to be used in a series. The cost of the DRS is estimated to be about US$5000 ($6380) a day, according to the ICC, making it problematic for some countries to afford.

A central sponsor can only be obtained if there is unanimity among the test-playing nations.

* Plans for a test championship to start in 2013 look likely to be put back four years.

The tournament was to be held in England for the first time, with the final at Lord's.

Instead the ODI Champions Trophy is likely to remain on the calendar.

Broadcast partners ESPN reckoned swapping from 50-overs to a test championship could cost the ICC about US$3 million, which in turn would reduce the ICC's payments to member boards.