India open to a DRS free of Hawk-Eye

India could be set to relax its long-standing opposition the Decision Review System, after the President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India suggested they’d be open to using a revised version of the technology.

India have long been holdouts of the DRS, insisting the software underpinning the system used in international cricket isn’t completely accurate.

They are the only Test-playing country that doesn’t use the technology where it’s available.

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The core of their opposition is based on their distrust of Hawk-Eye, a program that’s used for lbw decisions that predicts whether a delivery that’s struck a batsman on the pads would go on to hit the stumps.

But BCCI president Anurag Thakur admits India may be open to using a version of the DRS that doesn’t use Hawk-Eye.

"Our only issue is whether a technology which is not 100 per cent foolproof, shall we agree that error of judgement is equal with standing umpire and with the technology available?” Shakur told ESPN.

“So that is the call we have to take."

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The Massachusetts Institute of Technology recently presented the International Cricket Council with an independent assessment of the technologies used in the DRS.

Thakur was privy to the findings of that report, though it failed to sway the BCCI’s thoughts on the predictive components of the DRS.

"I raised this question at that time (of the release of the MIT report) also, whether it is 100 per cent foolproof? No,” Thakur said.

“Whether changes are required? Yes.

“When it could be done? MIT was supposed to give a report but they are themselves not much confident that it could be 100 per cent foolproof.”

All of which means India are unlikely to give the green light to the DRS in its current form.

But Thakur says India would consider using a form of the DRS free of what the BBCI believe are its speculative elements.

"I said earlier also that you can have it partially without the lbw decisions, (and) only (use it) for the rest of the decisions, Hawk-Eye and the rest of the stuff," Thakur said.

"But we need to ask ourselves if a machine is making the same error which a human is making, what are we getting out of it?"

In July, the ICC approved a major amendment to the DRS in regards to the ‘umpire’s call’ ruling.

The current protocols for overturning an ‘umpire’s call’ verdict on an lbw decision require the ball-tracking software to rule that more than half the ball would hit a zone that was between the middle of the off and leg stumps and below the bottom of the bails.

The change will see that zone increased to the outside of the off and leg stumps, but still below the bottom of the bails.

Australia, who are set to begin a five-match One-Day International series against South Africa later this month, are set to be the first team to play under the new rules.