Weaker countries get more wrong decisions - Kamal

Mustafa Kamal, the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) president, has said that weaker teams get the short end of the stick when it comes to umpiring decisions.

"I was listening to the commentators during the recently concluded Pakistan series. Everyone mentioned there that we got bad decisions," Kamal said during the launch ceremony for the 2012 Asia Cup. "If those decisions went our way, the cricket would have been more competitive but we couldn't do that. To err is human. I cannot talk against umpires being an ICC director, but I have seen that against weaker countries, there are more wrong decisions."

Kamal was referring to the fourth day of the second Test at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium, when Bangladesh opener Tamim Iqbal was given out caught even though the ball appeared to have struck his helmet and lobbed to the slip fielder. It was a crucial time for the Bangladesh team who were in pursuit of saving the game. There was a loud clamour for the Decision Review System (DRS), though this wasn't the first such instance.

During the England series in March 2010 as well, there was a lot of talk surrounding the BCB's reluctance to use technology with then captain Shakib Al Hasan being one of the advocates. In the second Test of that series, coach Jamie Siddons was seen fuming at some of the decisions in the England first innings. Umpire Asoka de Silva's mistakes during the Pakistan tour in 2003 was the first flashpoint of Bangladesh's angst with decisions.

Kamal was recently named the joint-nominee from Pakistan and Bangladesh for the ICC vice-presidency, and is in line to take over as president in 2014. He said that during the ICC's meeting a few months ago, the deliberations on making technology mandatory were put on hold as the system isn't foolproof yet. However, he stated that the next Bangladesh television deal would include the use of DRS.

"In the October ICC meeting, the DRS was discussed. There it was decided that since the technology hasn't been developed to that extent and there are mistakes in the DRS system itself, it won't be made mandatory.

"In our deal with Nimbus, there was no DRS. But from next April, when we will discuss with another broadcaster, we will tell them to include DRS in all our games."