Thaindian News

Perth, Jan 14 (IANS) International Cricket Council (ICC) chief executive Haroon Lorgat Saturday said it was time for strong cricket boards like Australia to challenge India on important issues like the Decision Review System (DRS).

Lorgat said DRS not being implemented in matches involving India should not be seen as the case of the powerful Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) using its financial clout but as a failure of other board members. The absence of DRS has become an embarrassment in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

“It’s not the strength of India that should be of concern, it should be the weakness of the others, because good governance is about everybody being able to stand on their own feet,” said Lorgat, who is here to watch the third Test between India and Australia.

When asked if he included Australia among those weak members, Lorgat said: “All of them, because if I am dominant I will get what I want because the [others] don’t want to challenge me. So don’t blame me, blame yourselves.”

Lorgat also said that ICC was patient in convincing its members including India on the DRS.

“I think we will get to a point where DRS will be acceptable to all member boards. I think we need to be patient and we need to convince those who are not convinced about the accuracy of the technology. In fact, we have commissioned an independent review to test the accuracy of ball-tracking but for now it’s the two participating nations that decide. I think it would have been far better had we had consistent application but we need to convince those who are sceptical,” he said.

Lorgat said it was up to all the Test playing nations to give proper treatment to the traditional format of the game until 2017.

“All of us have to take responsibility to schedule better, to ensure that there is some promotion around the game … We also want to make a proposal to improve the prize money awarded to the team that tops the Test ranking on April 1 each year,” Lorgat was quoted as saying in Sydney Morning Herald.

Lorgat also said that TV rights forced the ICC to postpone the proposed World Test Championship until 2017.

“We had pre-sold our rights through to 2015 and in order to convert the Champions Trophy to a Test championship it would have meant a small financial sacrifice which the board was not willing to make, and hence we deferred it to 2017 which was in the new rights cycle,” said Lorgat.