‘I was extremely upset with Dhoni and Tendulkar for refusing DRS’

Despite using DRS back in 2008, India only embraced the technology in 2016 when England came for a Test series.

Indian politician Shashi Tharoor has revealed he was upset with Sachin Tendulkar and MS Dhoni for not embracing the Decision Review System earlier. India was the first team to use the DRS – in 2008 during a Test series in Sri Lanka – but Dhoni, its former captain, opposed to the idea. India were the biggest critic of the technology believing it wasn’t fool proof and contained flaws.

MS Dhoni and Sachin Tendulkar during a net session.(Getty Images)

“I’m a huge fan of technology. I’ve been an advocate of DRS from the start, and I was extremely upset with Dhoni and Tendulkar for refusing it. I watch cricket and every time I’ve found that we were hard done by umpiring decisions. I never understood why we were so allergic to DRS,” Tharoor told SportsKeeda in an interview.

It was finally during England’s tour of India in 2016 that the BCCI finally decided to give the technology a go and over the years India would go on to embrace in whole-heartedly. However, Tharoor, a former international diplomat, felt India could have been quicker in opening up to DRS and that he is against the idea of piece of technology ever being taken away from cricket.

“DRS is such a major innovation. I never want to see international cricket without DRS ever again. It is so indispensable and eliminates so many bad decisions, and it creates an additional form of excitement for the viewer. It adds an extra element of tension to the plot and it is a very welcome addition as far as I’m concerned,” Tharoor explained.