BCCI has no money for DRS in Ranji Trophy final!

Madhya Pradesh at the Chinnaswamy Stadium has left many intrigued. It perhaps gave in-form Mumbai batsman Sarfaraz Khan a 'life' when he survived a close lbw appeal off MP seamer Gaurav Yadav. Over the next four days, it could have a greater impact on the fate of the final.

The BCCI had experimented with 'limited DRS' during the Ranji Trophy semifinals and final in the 2019-20 season. This restricted version of DRS did not comprise Hawk-Eye and UltraEdge -- key elements of the system in international cricket. The decision came about after Test star Cheteshwar Pujara got reprieved twice (caught behind) while playing in the Ranji Trophy semifinal for Saurashtra against Karnataka in the 2018-19 season.

It cost Karnataka the game. "We believe in our umpires," is how a BCCI official put it. "It's an expensive exercise to use the DRS.

The costs shoot up. How does it matter if there's no DRS in the final. It's time we trusted the umpires.

India's two best umpires (KN Ananthapadmanabhan and Virender Sharma) are officiating in this game. And what's the end result? If you use it in the final, you will want to introduce it in the league stage of the Ranji Trophy too," a former India player told TOI. The 'cost' factor for not using DRS, which can at least prevent howlers, looks lame when you consider that the BCCI just made a cool Rs 48,390 crore in its new telecast deal for the next five years of the IPL -- where DRS is used in all the games.

"The rigging (wiring) and derigging of all the equipment will be extremely costly. HawkEye means extra cameras needed. Ranji is done with limited equipment.

The argument will then be that why not for all televised games. Look, you can't have a half-baked DRS. The last time, it was used for