The Ashes 2013: DRS Proving the Difference Between Winning and Losing

As is fast becoming the case in numerous sports, the introduction of post-play reviewing is a contentious subject in cricket and, more relevantly, the current Ashes series.

Despite play being in just its fourth day, both England and Australia have already witnessed what a difference the wasting of a review call can make between whether an innings is to be considered a success or a failure.

The Umpire Decision Review System (otherwise known as UDRS) allows each side to make two unsuccessful requests for review per innings of a Test Match. Once those are exhausted, your side is then bereft of any higher powers intervening on one’s behalf, left only with the calls of the umpire, no matter how strongly one might feel against the decision.

In the first four days of Ashes action, pride has played its role in the decision-making of the players, that much is for sure.

On Saturday, Australia’s Shane Watson was dumped out of the action as the Aussies’ first casualty of Day Four, bowled out by for an LBW by the hosts’ Stuart Broad.

However certain it may have seemed to those watching from a television, Watson nonetheless chose to take the decision upstairs, a decision which large portion of those following on Twitter reacted strongly to.

However, the more infamous review topic of this series so far came in Friday’s action, when Stuart Broad’s so obviously edged tip was caught by Michael Clarke at slip, with Australian’s just waiting for the umpire’s finger to be raised.

But the finger never came and with all referrals exhausted, the Trent Bridge visitors were forced to settle for a decision of all too human proportions.

For some while, the subject of Broad’s moral code and ethics will be discussed at length. Why didn’t he do “the right thing” and walk? Would the Australian batters have done the same thing?

Whether it really is down to a matter of selfish pride or a player genuinely feels aggrieved by the cast decision, reviews are too much of a luxury yet too far and few between to use rashly.

With Wimbledon just behind us, we’ve already been treated to a masterclass of how this particular step inside technology allows sport to benefit.

More and more sports are coming round to the (expensive) idea of using post-play review systems within their realms, but it’s still up to the players falling subject to use that technology to its full potential.