By Lorenz Pereira Courtesy The Island

By Lorenz Pereira

(Captain – Royal College Cricket, 1958, Head Prefect, Dornhorst Prize winner and Coloursman in five sports, the recipient of the prestigious Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year Award (1959), and played cricket for Cambridge University under Mike Brearley, who later captained England).

It’s Royal Thomian and other schools’ Big Match time in Sri Lanka and a most appropriate moment to acknowledge the monumental innovation by a distinguished Royalist who revolutionized the way cricket is played today. He is Senaka Weeraratna, the unsung architect of the Decision Review System (DRS).

Cricket, often called the Gentleman’s Game,” has changed much over the years. One of the biggest changes has been in the use of technology to make the game fairer and more efficient. The DRS is one of the most important innovations in cricket, allowing players to challenge disputed umpiring decisions going against the entrenched tradition that the umpire’s word was law.”. It is not so now largely because of a brilliant concept called ‘Player Referral’ conceived by Senaka Weeraratna, a Sri Lankan lawyer.

A vision ahead of Its time

Weeraratna first proposed the idea of a ‘Player Referral’ System in a letter to the Editor of ‘The Australian’ newspaper published on March 25, 1997. He suggested that players should be allowed to appeal against erroneous umpiring decisions which would then be reviewed by a third umpire using slow motion video playbacks to make an accurate decision.

His argument was simple:

If you have the technology to detect an error of an umpire, then the same technology must be used to correct the error of an umpire.”
Unfortunately, a few people know that the idea for this revolutionary system change in the most popular game in British Commonwealth countries came from one man, Senaka Weeraratna, who has yet to receive due recognition from the International Cricket Council (ICC).

Since the publication of his groundbreaking proposal in Australia in 1997 to this date (altogether 28 years) he remains unchallenged as the author, innovator, inventor of this remarkable system. He is the only claimant in the world for this recognition with irrefutable evidence to substantiate his claim.
Cricket has always been a game that values fairness and justice, but for years, mistakes by umpires went uncorrected—even when millions of viewers could see the error on TV.

From concept to implementation

Weeraratna’s proposal has these four important elements:
1. Allow dissatisfied players to challenge an umpire’s decision.
2. Route the appeal through the team captain (when fielding) or the dismissed batsman (when batting).

3. Have the third umpire review the decision.

4. Limit the number of appeals per innings to prevent the protraction of the game through frivolous appeals.

His concept was published in several well-known newspapers, including The Australian, The Sunday Age (Australia), The Times of London, The Sunday Times (Sri Lanka), Dawn (Pakistan), Daily News (Sri Lanka), The Sunday Island (Sri Lanka), New Straits Times (Malaysia) and even the Time Magazine. The reputed ‘International Cricketer’ Magazine edited by Richard Hutton (Sir Len Hutton’s son, whom I played with for Cambridge University) also published his article.

Despite this enormous reception to his idea in the media in leading cricket playing nations, his innovative contribution to the reform of cricket rules for the purpose of due credit was ignored by the International Cricket Council (ICC).

In 2009, the ICC introduced the DRS, which was remarkably similar to Weeraratna’s concept from 12 years earlier. However, they did not credit anyone for the idea nor disclose the source of the concept.

The battle for recognition

Unlike the Duckworth-Lewis method, which is named after its creators, the DRS has no officially recognized inventor. This is very unfair to Weeraratna, who has been fighting for recognition for years. As cricket historian Michael Roberts pointed out: Both the DRS in cricket and Goal Line Technology in soccer have a common origin in the ‘Player Referral’ concept conceived by Senaka Weeraratna in 1997.” The ICC, which is supposed to uphold the spirit of fairness in cricket, has a bounden duty to recognize this gentleman.

A call for justice

If cricket truly values justice, the ICC must acknowledge Senaka Weeraratna as the creator of the DRS. Recognizing him is not just about giving him credit; it is about upholding the principles of fairness and integrity that cricket unequivocally stands for.

Many inventors in sports history have been recognized for their contributions. ICC should do the same. Weeraratna’s idea has not only changed the face of cricket but has also influenced other sports like tennis and football, where technology is now used to assist referees.

The Decision Review System has forever changed the way cricket is played. Behind this system is a man whose vision made it possible. It is time for the world to recognize Senaka Weeraratna—the true father of DRS.

Senaka Weeraratna, a proud alumnus of Royal College, belongs to the Class of 1960 (the Olive Group). He has also authored / edited a number of books and articles on various topics ranging from the law relating to foreign investment in Sri Lanka, Public Unit Trusts, History of Royal College, Biographies of eminent lawyers (C.R. de Silva, and Maithri Panagoda), Animal Rights and Animal Welfare Bill, and Global Buddhism and in particular Buddhism in Germany.

In school he was a member of the Royal College Chess Team and Captained the College Chess team in 1967, the winner of the School Table Tennis Doubles championship (1966). He represented the school in Table Tennis (‘B’ team) and played House Cricket.

It’s a sheer travesty of Justice that due recognition has not been forthcoming.

Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) and the Sri Lankan Government must take this matter seriously and ensure that Weeraratna receives the recognition he deserves, both locally and internationally. If the ICC officially acknowledges him, it will not only honor a Sri Lankan innovator but also profoundly raise Sri Lanka’s image and stature in the global world.