Abu Dhabi: Former Pakistan pacer Waqar Younis, in a recent interview with Gulf News, had said, ‘it is wise to make use of the technology when it is there, rather than not have any.’
He was reacting to India’s decision to finally accept the use of the Decision Review System (DRS) for the forthcoming series against England. And the evidence of its positive impact was seen during the ongoing series between Pakistan and West Indies.
Not once or twice but seven times had the on-field umpires erred in their judgement and DRS had come to the rescue of the players. However, having said that, both English umpires Michael Gough and Richard Illingworth were clearly in a spot of bother. DRS has put the duo under a lot of scrutiny, especially the inexperienced Gough who had to bear a lot of embarrassment for his wrong calling.
Gough, standing in his third Test, suffered more than his country mate as on four occasions his decisions had to be revoked following a DRS referral. Darren Bravo, Marlon Samuels, Azhar Ali and Sami Aslam were all given out by Gough only to be later given lifeline by DRS. Rostan Chase’ leg before on 7 also received a reprieve via DRS but that wrong decision came from umpire Illingworth, whose first poor call was a leg before decision of Yasir Shah which the latter overturned courtesy DRS.
Then towards the end of day’s play, Illingworth gave Aslam not out for caught behind but after Windies called for a referral, the Pakistan opener was walking back.
