“Stick A Camera, Microphone”: Michael Vaughan’s ‘Simple’ Solution Over DRS Row

Amid the controversy surrounding the Decision Review System (DRS) in the ongoing Test series between India and England, former cricketer Michael Vaughan has come up with a “simple solution” to tackle the challenges of the technology. England, who won the opening game in Hyderabad, have expressed their disappointment regarding some of the decions that have gone against them, pertaining to DRS and the umpire’s call. After being hammered by India in the third Test in Rajkot (434 runs), England captain Ben Stokes had urged the officials to get rid of the umpire’s call.

Stokes’ comments came after opener Zak Crawley found himself on the wrong end of the umpire’s call. The umpire had declared Crawley out, a decision that was upheld by the DRS.

However, upon zooming the DRS footage, it was shown that the ball was missing the top of the leg stump, leaving Stokes and the visitors fuming.

England found themselves in a similar situation in the fourth Test, this time the decision had gone against Joe Root in the second innings on Day 3.

In Root’s case, the ball tracking showed that more than half of the ball was pitching outside the line before going on to hit the leg stump.

Amid the growing concerns regarding the credibility of the technology, Vaughan has urged the ICC to put up a camera and a mic in the DRS room.

“It only takes one look at social media to see that a lot of people don’t trust it. There is so much anger and suspicion about decisions that go for or against certain teams. There’s suspicion about host broadcasters and who is in the truck. That is despite the technology companies not actually being from the same country as the host broadcaster. For instance, Hawk-Eye is a company from the UK but is being used in this series. They are just brought in by the host broadcaster,” Vaughan wrote in his column for the Telegraph.

“So here’s a simple solution to help improve transparency and accountability: stick a camera and microphone in the truck so as a decision is being made, we all know exactly what is going on, and how much humans are involved. And if you stick an ICC official in there as well we’d know that the integrity – something we talk so much about in the game – is intact. You could argue that those running the technology in the truck are as important as the two standing umpires,” he added.