No love lost: BCCI maintains opposition to DRS in current form

Mumbai: Two days after senior off-spinner Harbhajan Singh and a few former India players came out in support of the much-debated Decision Review System, the Cricket Board on Tuesday maintained that the referral process in its current form is unacceptable.

"We have always maintained that DRS in its current form is not acceptable to us. Our opposition is to the ball tracking technology and the process by which players have to take the call. Why can't the third umpire sitting in front of TV screen decide on the referrals," BCCI secretary Sanjay Patel told reporters here on Tuesday.

Patel, who spoke after the Governing Council meeting of the Indian Premier League that was chaired by Ranjib Biswal, said if ICC makes these changes BCCI has been asking for in the DRS, the Indian Board would embrace it.

"If DRS can be brought to near fool-proof, which is not the case now, we will accept it," said the Baroda-based Patel when asked about the raging debate over referrals following a slew of dubious decisions by the umpires which went mostly against India in the ongoing series against Australia Down Under.

Two days ago Harbhajan had spoken out in favour of DRS which is not in place in the India-Australia series.

"I believe it's time that we accepted the DRS as it will only benefit our cause. If you look, in both Test matches, India were very competitive but there were key moments when our boys got a raw deal," Harbhajan had told PTI.

Former cricketers Ajit Wadekar, Dilip Vengsarkar, Mohammad Azharuddin, Erapalli Prasanna and Chetan Chauhan had also spoken out in support of DRS.

Meanwhile, Patel said the IPL GC had decided to hold the players' auction in the middle of February 2015.

"We have a small window before the start of the World Cup (after the conclusion of the tri-series in Australia) and want to hold the auctions then," said Patel.

Patel said the Indian squad for both these limited overs tournaments would be picked between January 7 and 10. The preliminary Cup squad of 30 has been announced and it has to be pruned to the final squad of 15 for the February 14-March 29 mega event in Australia and New Zealand.