What is the Origin of DRS ? Instant Replay demanded by a Coach Referral in Baseball or Player Referral demanded by a dissatisfied Player under DRS in Cricket ?
Posted on January 25th, 2024
Sports
The Decision Review System (DRS), formerly known as the Umpire Decision Review System (UDRS), is a technology-backed system used in cricket to assist the match officials in their decision-making. On-field umpires may choose to consult with the third umpire (known as an Umpire Review), and players may request that the third umpire consider a decision of the on-field umpires (known as a Player Review).
The main elements that have been used are television replays, technology that tracks the path of the ball and predicts what it would have done, microphones to detect small sounds made as the ball hits bat or pad, and infra-red imaging to detect temperature changes as the ball hits the bat or pad. Tony Verna revolutionized the way we watch and officiate sports when he invented instant replay in 1963.[1] On December 7, 1963, Army and Navy squared off in their annual college football game, renewing one of sport’s greatest rivalries. In the fourth quarter, Army quarterback Carl “Rollie” Stichweh faked a hand-off and ran into the end zone at Philadelphia’s Municipal Stadium to score a touchdown.
Then something disorienting happened for fans watching at home on television. Stichweh again faked a hand-off and ran into the end zone for a touchdown. This is not live,” CBS play-by-play announcer Lindsey Nelson told the television audience. Ladies and gentlemen, Army did not score again!” With that call, Nelson announced the birth of instant replay.
Instant replay was invented by Tony Verna, the hotshot 30-year-old director working behind the scenes of the Army-Navy telecast. Verna had puzzled over the idea for several years, and when he finally got it to work, he changed the way we watch and officiate sports forever.
Queries
Can the claim made of an ‘ Instant Replay’ fashioned in 1963 by an American concerning another sport i.e., Baseball, be considered the true conceptual origin of the DRS of Cricket? Baseball players are not allowed to appeal against a Umpire’s decision to this day. Only Coaches are allowed. The paradigm ‘ the Umpire’s decision is final which must be respected by players ‘ stood unchallenged in both games Baseball and Cricket until 2008 when the ICC introduced as a Test case the DRS based on the concept of ‘ Player Referral’ of a Sri Lankan-born lawyer Senaka Weeraratna then living in Darwin, Australia, which was first published as a Letter to the Editor of ‘ The Australian’ dated March 25, 1997. This was the first occasion in world history that a case was made using the analogy of the appellate function of the legal system, to press home the point that we needed to adopt it on the playing field in a modified form in combination with modern technology, i.e., video playback in the hands of Third Umpire, to determine the accuracy of a decision made by an on-field or ground umpire by way of a Review System. If the Coach Referral mechanism of Baseball was the true inspiration for DRS why didn’t the ICC take it from the Americans before the publication of Senaka Weeraratna’s letter in 1997 advocating Player Referral? We are saying ICC borrowed it from Senaka Weeraratna because as stated in the legal opinion of two Sri Lankan lawyers Dr. Harsha Cabral, PC, and Mr. Kushan Illangathilake the four fundamental elements of DRS are set out in Senaka Weeraratna’s ‘ Player Referral’.
That is why a series of newspapers and prestigious Cricket Journals in the cricket world carried it as a novel idea and innovation worthy of adoption to change the Rules of the Game. A pre-existing fundament of the game was that the Umpire’s decision was final. Under the Player Referral concept (now DRS) it is not so. This sacrosanct feature of the game it was argued by Senaka Weeraratna must be yielded in the interest of better decision-making, to uphold fair play, justice, and the integrity of Cricket. DRS which was first adopted by the game of cricket has also seen several other sports such as the high profile International Soccer, Tennis, etc. incorporating this idea of Player Referral and goal-line technology into the game. . While on-field Test match umpires have been able to refer some decisions to a third umpire since November 1992, the formal DRS system to add Player Reviews was first used in a Test match in 2008, first used in a One Day International (ODI) in January 2011, and used in a Twenty20 International in October 2017.
The Invention of Instant Replay
JANUARY 20, 2022 BY ERIC S. HINTZ
Tony Verna revolutionized the way we watch and officiate sports when he invented instant replay in 1963.