Sri Lanka is not sure if their next cricketing engagement which would begin seven days after the current Pakistan series would include the Umpire Decision Review System.
The Interim Committee Chairman of Sri Lanka Cricket Upali Dharmadasa speaking to the Sunday Times said ,"We have written to our counterparts in Johannesburg on this matter and are awaiting their response".
The Lankan cricket chief also added, "However I feel if the DRS is in place the gamut of equipment related to it also should be there. For instance during the series against Australia we had some of the equipment placed, but, not all. The England-India series which was in progress at that time had the hot-spot but in Sri Lanka the hot-spot was not available.
"I personally feel if there is a series in progress and if they are using the DRS (as it is not mandatory now) they must use the entire lot of equipment. Generally as a norm, four series are conducted by the ICC simultaneously".
When Sri Lanka is in South Africa the Australia-New Zealand and the Australia-India series and the England -Pakistan series will be in progress.
Since the ICC called DRS non-mandatory just prior to the Pakistan series, hosts Pakistan pulled away from including the system for the Sri Lanka series now in progress in the Middle East.
The first Test match which was drawn contained some glaring umpire errors which included the Sri Lanka captain's caught behind - a decision that in all probabilities would have been reversed if DRS was in place.
The ICC made the system mandatory in April this year, but amidst protests from the BCCI took a step back recently and made non-mandatory and gave the host team the prerogative to implement the system or not.
Since India lost a series against Sri Lanka 2-1 when the DRS was initially tested, the money maker of the game has been a vehement opposition to it.
SLC employees yet to be paid
Meanwhile in another development it is reported that Sri Lanka Cricket which is facing a severe cash shortage have failed to pay the salaries to most of their employees for the current month.
It is said the ex-pat staff and some persons who are doing honourary work have been paid, but the rest of the employees are yet to be paid. When the Sunday Times tried to contact the SLC Interim Committee Chairman on this issue there was no response. Meanwhile BBC also carried a story to the effect that SLC's one hundred contract players are yet to be paid and the SLC Interim Committee had responded by saying that there is truth in the media reports.
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