Senaka Weeraratna

 Shashi Tharoor has said 

DRS is such a major innovation. I never want to see international cricket without DRS ever again. It is so indispensable and eliminates so many bad decisions, and it creates an additional form of excitement for the viewer. It adds an extra element of tension to the plot and it is a very welcome addition as far as I’m concerned,”. 

For more, see 

https://www.hindustantimes.com/cricket/i-was-extremely-upset-with-dhoni-and-tendulkar-for-refusing-drs/story-v86ji6jgAN450PRjLcDQBN.html

Any other cricket playing country would have glorified the invention and the inventor had any one of their own people claimed credit for the invention. In India the Bharat Ratna ( highest civilian award) or Padma Vibhushan ( second highest civilian award) may have been awarded had an Indian inventor claimed it. An Indian inventor of, say, the DRS,  would have become a world celebrity appearing on TV shows, Radio Talk shows and further more Indian Cricket Commentators would have gone to town repeatedly taking pride in the fellow Indian’s brain child i.e., DRS.

In contrast, in Sri Lanka, unfortunately, there is a dead silence, despite a Sri Lankan lawyer ( Senaka Weeraratna) being the only claimant in the whole world for inventing DRS. ICC is unable to identify anyone from its stables. Their answer is that a man they cannot name discovered DRS. If say, a property is stolen it becomes awkward for the Principal to name the miscreant. ICC now finds itself in such dubious position in full glare of the cricket world. The ICC’s position is Untenable. Unconvincing.

 Furthermore, the failure of the local cricket establishment to back a Sri Lankan’s claims at ICC level leads to the growing suspicion that the cricket controllers in Sri Lanka have let down or betrayed their country, are envious  ( eerishiyawa) or spineless to back their own man for fear of losing the patronage of the ICC,  perks and a very comfortable ride in the rich gravy train.

What ever the morally indefensible track record of the past, it is never too late for the SLC to intervene vis a vis ICC and take pride in a Sri Lankan’s gigantic contribution to the development of modern cricket through a ground breaking concept called ‘ Player Referral’ that uses video playback technology in combination with the procedural functions of an Appellate court of law, to correct a ground umpire’s decisions.

This is the Decision Review System that has changed the face of the game of Cricket. 

Senaka W