Former Sri Lanka international, Kumar Sangakkara has decided to take the entire ‘Jonny Bairstow DRS’ saga to Twitter and has expressed his concerns over the credibility of the Decision Review System. The 26-year-old English batsman survived a controversial LBW appeal after a Shaminda Eranga delivery thudded his back pad when he was batting on 56.
When the onfield umpire, S. Ravi decided not to entertain Sri Lanka's appeal for the LBW decision, their captain, Angelo Mathews opted to challenge the decision via DRS. Incidentally, the Ball Tracking Technology aka Hawk-Eye decided to stick with the umpire's decision as the ball missed the 50% mark by a millimeter.
As the entire Sri Lankan squad was left stunned on the field following the third umpire's decision, Kumar Sangakkara decided to take the matter to Twitter. Here is what the former Sri Lanka international had to say on the social platform:
According to the current DRS rule, at least 50 percent of the ball needs to hit the stumps if a batsman has to be declared LBW. Whereas, ‘the remaining 50 per cent is jointly allotted to benefit of doubt to the on-field umpire's decision and the lack of fullproof technology, which can accurately track the path of a ball towards the stumps after hits the batsman.’
Kumar Sangakkara's former teammate, Mahela Jayawardene who is presently a member of International Cricket Council's (ICC) ‘Cricket Committee’ told ESPNcricinfo a recommendation has been made to change the current DRS rule for LBW appeals.
“We've decided that the 50 per \cent rule should be reduced to 25 percent,” he told ESPNcricinfo. “You think the benefit of the doubt when sometimes umpires are considering those margins, that 25 percent is okay, but I think 50 percent is too much.”
Incidentally, Jonny Bairstow went on to score a century against Sri Lanka at the end of Day 1 as England finished the day's play at 279 for 6.
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