Referrals have improved decision-making - Lorgat

ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat believes the referral system has helped considerably in reaching correct on-field decisions. "The referral system has improved the rate of giving correct decisions," he said. "The idea is to give [the umpires] sufficient help to get the decisions correct. We have seen that the percentage of the correct decisions has gone up from 94% to 98% with this system in place."

A final decision, he said, would be arrived at soon. "The ICC's cricket committee will decide on the matter in May and put forward its proposal to the executive board in June."

The system, first trialled internationally on India's tour of Sri Lanka in July-August last year, was also tried out in the two-Test series between New Zealand and West Indies in December.

A slight modification was introduced for the current series between West indies and England, with the number of referrals per team in each innings reduced from three to two. Depending on the success, it may stay that way for the South Africa-Australia series later this month.

The system has not been without its fair share of criticism, though. Sachin Tendulkar, who was part of the India team when on that Sri Lanka tour, recently said he was not impressed with it. "There is still an element of uncertainty in the system," he said. "I still prefer the Hot Spot system to identify the contact between the ball and bat."