West Indies coach Stuart Law is among those calling for further changes to the Decision Review System.
His comments follow a number of controversial non-decisions during the drawn second Test between the Windies and Zimbabwe in Bulawayo earlier this week.
The ICC last month introduced a host of minor rule changes, including the removal of ‘top-up’ reviews after 80 overs in Tests; teams still have two unsuccessful review available to them per innings, but that count no longer re-starts after 80 overs.
The Windies were stung by the rule tweak when Zimbabwe’s push for a draw was aided by up to three decisions going their way when the visitors had run out of reviews, notably the reprieve to skipper Graeme Cremer from the first ball he faced. Cremer remained not out at the close, surviving a further 48 overs as the hosts staved off defeat with seven wickets down.
It led to criticism from Law and his Zimbabwean counterpart Heath Streak.
“To only be able to use (the DRS) for two incorrect appeals, I think, is ludicrous considering that you had $400,000 worth of machinery around and you can’t use it,” Law said, who prefaced his remarks by saying “I probably can’t comment on that because I’ll get into big trouble”.
“To me that doesn’t quite make sense. But we’ve got to be smarter and understand that we do only have two reviews.
“From my understanding, the technology has been incorporated to stop the absolute howler. Umpires are human and they make mistakes, we all do.
“But it’s there to stop the howler and if there are decisions where you feel you’ve been hard done by and you’re not able to use it, I think it’s something that must be looked at.”
Windies skipper Holder, however, was far more philosophical and said the tough decisions evened out over the course of the match.
“A few decisions didn’t go our way, but that’s how it goes,” he said. “We got lucky in our innings as well, to be honest that’s how the game works out.
“Reviewing is difficult, on TV it looks pretty straight but when ball-tracking comes up you see something totally different. Fifteen seconds to make the decision feels like five seconds and it’s up to the keeper and the bowler to make the decision.”
The Windies despite the drawn second Test won the series 1-0.