ICC admits 'minute errors' in DRS

Amid a debate over the use of Decision Review System following Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni questioning its accuracy, the ICC on Sunday acknowledged that "minute number of errors" in DRS have been detected with the world body monitoring it closely.

Dhoni had questioned the accuracy of DRS after Rahul Dravid was controversially given out despite television replays not showing any edge off the bat during his side's first ODI against England. © AFP

Dhoni had questioned the accuracy of DRS after Rahul Dravid was controversially given out despite television replays not showing any edge off the bat during his side's first ODI against England at Chester-le-Street on Saturday.

The ICC said it has been monitoring the accuracy of ball-tracking and all decisions whether referred or not under the DRS and it has revealed "a minute number of errors in technology and that technology is not always conclusive".

"The ICC today re-iterated that it has always, and will continue to, monitor the accuracy of ball-tracking and all decisions whether referred or not under the DRS," the ICC said in a statement.

"Following criticism of the DRS in some areas of the media, David Richardson, ICC general manager - Cricket, re-affirmed that every decision made in Test match and ODI cricket is monitored at the ICC Headquarters in Dubai," it said.

Richardson said that in the vast majority of cases an incorrect decision can be - and has been - rectified.

"The purpose of the DRS is to get as many decisions correct as possible. The statistics show that, with the full DRS in operation, the number of correct decisions rises to almost 98 per cent and that is what we must focus on," Richardson said.

"Even if it is possible only to reach 98 per cent that has to be better than the average achieved without DRS of around 93 per cent," he said.

The statistics given by the ICC showed that the accuracy of the decisions in the recently-concluded four-match Test series with the use of DRS, though without ball-tracking technology, was 96.31 per cent as against 93.35 without the system.

The recent three-match Test series between England and Sri Lanka recorded accuracy of 98.47 per cent in decisions under DRS while it was 92.35 without the system. The two-match Test series between the West Indies and Pakistan had 98.63 per cent accuracy of DRS as against 94.52 without the system.

The recently concluded five-match ODI series between Australia and Sri Lanka has been shown as having 100 per cent accuracy of decisions by using DRS as well as without the system.