Teaching DRS, a prayer, a forgotten star...

Sabi Hussain

Tribune News Service

Mumbai, December 9

The Indian cricket board (BCCI) wants to educate India’s first-class umpires about the Decision Review System (DRS). BCCI organised a two-day workshop for them here on October 7-8 to help them understand how to use this technology. Umpires from different regions attended the workshop, their names shortlisted by BCCI’s technical committee.

The details of the workshop weren’t shared by BCCI and it largely went unnoticed. The BCCI officials, too, didn’t seem much interested in talking about it and what all the umpires learnt. When BCCI’s General Manager (game development) Ratnakar Shetty was approached for details, he merely stated that it was important for the Indian umpires to understand DRS.

“The BCCI organised the workshop to make the umpires knowledgeable,” Shetty told The Tribune. “DRS is in use at the international level and India have also been using it (on a trial basis in the India-England series). Other international cricket associations also conduct such workshops.”

BCCI organising a DRS workshop indicates that it is certainly warming up to the technology after years of resistance.

Prayer time for Hameed

England’s young opener Haseeb Hameed, ruled out of the Mumbai and Chennai Tests due to a broken finger, is a very religious man. Like his father and two elder brothers, he regularly offers prayers in the mosque when not playing for Lancashire and England. Hameed is in India to support England in the Mumbai Test and is watching the game from the stands, cheering and applauding his team. On Friday, as soon the clock ticked past 1 O’clock, Hameed got up from his seat on the second floor of the MCA pavilion and headed straight to a nearby mosque to offer prayers, accompanied by his father. “I am just proud of my religion. I believe in the almighty god,” he said.

Kambli’s afternoon dash

Former India cricketer Vinod Kambli hasn’t lost his following among Mumbaikars, despite his differences and unwarranted public criticism of Sachin Tendulkar on certain occasions. Tendulkar is the ‘God of Cricket’ for the entire nation and the cricket-crazy Mumbai fans take his name with reverence. So, after Kambli accused Tendulkar of “not doing enough for him”, many Mumbaikars may have started disliking him.

But today, outside the Wankhede Stadium, his afternoon dash to come in created a sort of flutter. Kambli’s presence attracted much attention — in a positive manner — as people cheered and waved at him and requested for selfies. The crowd comprised spectators who had come out after the tea break and those merely crowding the street to see which celebrity or cricketer was coming out or going in.

Kambli, who has many fond memories of his playing days at this venue, was attired in his usual bright clothes with two gold chains dangling from his neck.

“Came here to revisit my good old days,” Kambli told this reporter. “It’s been years since I last visited Wankhede, so thought of dropping in. Good to see the crowd still remembers me.”