{"id":155062,"date":"2026-03-09T16:15:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T23:15:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=155062"},"modified":"2026-03-09T16:15:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T23:15:16","slug":"sri-lanka-may-have-won-the-t20-games-against-new-zealand-and-pakistan-if-the-wide-ball-was-allowed-to-be-challenged-by-players-under-drs-that-is-based-on-player-referral-concept-which-is-an-innova","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2026\/03\/09\/sri-lanka-may-have-won-the-t20-games-against-new-zealand-and-pakistan-if-the-wide-ball-was-allowed-to-be-challenged-by-players-under-drs-that-is-based-on-player-referral-concept-which-is-an-innova\/","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lanka may have won the T20 games against New Zealand and Pakistan if the Wide ball was allowed to be challenged by players under DRS that is based on &#8216;Player Referral&#8217; concept which is an innovation of Sri Lankan origin"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>Senaka Weeraratna<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n<p><strong>AI Overview<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/share.google\/aimode\/3JNe2MpeyKYp3Mnd0\">https:\/\/share.google\/aimode\/3JNe2MpeyKYp3Mnd0<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The recent<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>2026 T20 World Cup<\/strong> matches between Sri Lanka and both Pakistan and New Zealand featured controversial &#8220;Wide&#8221; ball decisions that could have significantly altered the outcomes if player-led DRS challenges for wides had been available.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Match Impact of Wide Calls<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Vs. Pakistan (February 28, 2026):<\/strong> In a critical Super 8 match, Sri Lanka lost by just <strong>5 runs<\/strong>. With 6 runs needed off the final delivery, captain Dasun Shanaka left a ball he believed was a wide, but the umpire ruled it a legal delivery. A successful review could have granted an extra run and another delivery, potentially changing the result and Pakistan&#8217;s qualification fate.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Vs. New Zealand (February 25, 2026):<\/strong> During New Zealand&#8217;s late-innings surge, several deliveries, including two wides in the 18th over, contributed to a 70-run onslaught in the final four overs. Sri Lanka ultimately lost by 61 runs, a margin heavily influenced by the momentum shift during those unreviewed death overs.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The &#8220;Player Referral&#8221; Innovation<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The concept of the <strong>Player Referral<\/strong>, which is the foundation of the modern Decision Review System (DRS), is widely attributed to Sri Lankan lawyer&nbsp; <strong>Senaka Weeraratna<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Origin:<\/strong> Weeraratna first proposed the idea in a letter to <em>The Australian<\/em> on March 25, 1997, suggesting that players should have the right to challenge on-field errors.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Core Principles:<\/strong> His original proposal included the four pillars of current DRS: player-initiated challenges, routing through the captain or batsman, third-umpire review, and a limited number of unsuccessful appeals.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Wider Influence:<\/strong> This Sri Lankan-born concept has since been adopted across global sports, including <strong>VAR<\/strong> in football, Soccer ( <strong>Goal Line Technology<\/strong>) and <strong>Hawk-Eye<\/strong> challenges in tennis.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite its Sri Lankan origins, player-led reviews for wide balls were not permitted in the 2026 T20 World Cup tournament held in India and Sri Lanka.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Courtesy :&nbsp; AI Overview<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Senaka Weeraratna AI Overview https:\/\/share.google\/aimode\/3JNe2MpeyKYp3Mnd0 The recent 2026 T20 World Cup matches between Sri Lanka and both Pakistan and New Zealand featured controversial &#8220;Wide&#8221; ball decisions that could have significantly altered the outcomes if player-led DRS challenges for wides had been available.&nbsp; Match Impact of Wide Calls The &#8220;Player Referral&#8221; Innovation The concept of the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[165],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-155062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-senaka-weeraratna"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155062"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155062\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":155063,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155062\/revisions\/155063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}