Real-time Snicko and Hawkeye ball-tracking will be used, while Hot Spot will be absent from the DRS at the World Cup in what looms as the final ICC event for the review system in its current form.
The ICC’s cricket operations manager Geoff Allardice confirmed that the entire DRS system was to be reviewed and perhaps re-imagined between now and the next major event to use it – the 2017 Champions Trophy to be hosted by England. A review of the entire DRS system, in use in various forms since 2008, is set to land on Allardice’s desk at the ICC headquarters in Dubai in the second half of 2015.
When combined with India’s reluctance, that report may mark significant changes to the system, meaning the 2015 World Cup may come to be seen as 1987’s was – the last event to be played in whites and without any day/night matches scheduled. For now, Allardice confirmed the format of the DRS for the next six weeks, explaining that Hot Spot was largely ruled out due to the cost and difficulty of getting the required equipment to all venues across the two host countries.
MORGAN SLAMS BAT SIZE DEBATE
Eoin Morgan, England’s One-Day International captain, has dismissed the idea of reducing bat sizes after the World Cup as ‘ridiculous’.
It was reported that the International Cricket Council (ICC) could explore the possibility of cracking down on oversized bats so that batsmen don’t get an unfair advantage from hefty willows. But Morgan, speaking to reporters in Sydney on Saturday, ahead of two World Cup warm-up games against West Indies starting on Monday, said: ‘The fact that you can concentrate on the bat size when the rule changes have been made so that you bowl with two new balls, the ball is never any more old than 25 overs, and even extra one (fielder) in the circle. I think that’s a point in itself, but the bat size is ridiculous. I haven’t come across a bat yet where I’ve said this is ridiculous, or that this should be outlawed.’
AJMAL MAY MAKE SURPRISE APPEARANCE
Saeed Ajmal may yet make it to the World Cup with Pakistan. According to the coaches, Ajmal was tested not only for his off-spinners but variety of balls like doosra, carom balls and the quicker ones. ‘All these deliveries, according to the video clips, are well below or within the permissible limits,’ those present at the centre said.
DHONI BECOMES A DAD – JUST IN TIME
India captain MS Dhoni has become a father just days before the World Cup starts. Wife Sakshi delivered their first baby, a girl, around 4pm at a private hospital in Gurgaon on Friday. The baby was due in March but was born almost a month earlier – right on schedule for the World Cup.
Sources close to the family informed that it is a healthy child weighing nearly 2.5kg. While MSD could not be present at the happy occasion, both the set of grandparents were at the hospital since Friday morning. Family sources said that MSD, who is in Australia for the World Cup that starts next weekend, has been informed of the good news.
