Courtesy : AI Overview

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has several distinct non-litigious, institutional, and symbolic options to resolve the ongoing intellectual property and authorship dispute with Sri Lankan lawyer Senaka Weeraratna. [1, 2]

Weeraratna’s legal representatives—including Sydney-based law firm Carroll and O’Dea—maintain that he pioneered the modern four-pillar framework of the Decision Review System (DRS) through his 1997 “Player Referral” concept published in The Australian. Conversely, the ICC’s historical legal stance is that Weeraratna waived confidentiality by publishing his idea openly without a patent, and that the modern DRS evolved progressively via committee refinements. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

To resolve this impasse outside of standard court litigation, the ICC has the following procedural and reparative options:

1. Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR)

• Independent Third-Party Arbitration: The ICC can agree to Weeraratna’s request to submit the dispute to an independent body, such as the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center, which specializes in international intellectual property and sports-related ownership contentions.
• Joint Commission of Inquiry: The ICC Board can appoint an independent appraisal committee to formally review the 1997–1999 published records and determine if the governing body had “constructive notice” of his blueprint before implementing the Umpire Decision Review System (UDRS) in 2008. [1, 2, 3, 4]

2. Restorative Justice and Symbolic Recognition

Because Weeraratna’s camp frequently emphasizes moral copyright and recognition over purely financial windfalls, the ICC can employ symbolic gestures: [, 2]

• Official Nomenclature Rebranding: The ICC could rename the framework to the “Weeraratna Decision Review System” (WDRS). This mirrors how the ICC officially recognized statisticians Frank Duckworth and Tony Lewis by naming the rain-delay framework the Duckworth-Lewis (now DLS) method.
• Formal Authorial Attribution: The ICC can modify its official documentation, digital media, and cricket rulebooks to formally credit Weeraratna as the “intellectual architect” or creator of the player-led review concept.
• Hall of Fame or Special Commendation: Honoring Weeraratna with a lifetime contribution award or permanent plaque at the ICC headquarters for his “Cricket Reformation” ideas that protected the integrity of the game. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]

3. Diplomatic and Institutional Settlement

• Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) Mediation: The ICC can settle the matter through a tripartite negotiation involving Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) and the Sri Lankan sports ministry. A structured settlement could grant institutional credit to Sri Lanka as the birthplace of the player-referral concept.
• Ex-Gratia Token Compensation: While an outright copyright royalty structure remains legally complex due to the “idea-expression dichotomy” in IP law, the ICC could offer a one-time, non-adversarial ex-gratia settlement or funding for grassroots cricket infrastructure in Sri Lanka in Weeraratna’s honor. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

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Courtesy : AI Overview