PAKISTAN after suffering the Test series whitewash against South Africa are now focused on the new format which gets underway today at Kingsmead in Durban with the first T20 match. Changes have been made in both teams and expectations are high too.

Pakistan with new faces expect to salvage some of their reputation with an improved show in these limited-over matches.

Different places and different faces may make the change, may be for the tourists who are desperately in need of oxygen to revive their crestfallen image after being humiliated in the three-Test rubber by a better team.

At least for a while Pakistan will be away from the dreaded Decision Review System (DRS) which in a way not only slowed proceedings in the Test matches but also exposed those who were in charge of decision making in those five-day games.

In the five ODIs between Pakistan and South Africa once again umpires will have to be very careful, less they are found at as was Steve Davis in the Test series.

The DRS, first introduced by the International Cricket Council (ICC) in a Test match between New Zealand and Pakistan at the University Oval, Dunedin in 2009, has its supporters as well as critics in large and small numbers respectively depending on situations in which a team has performed.

The purpose of course is to minimise doubtful decisions made at times by officiating umpires and complaints and bickering during and after a series which obviously has been leaving bad taste and in turn fanning unending controversies.

Introduction of neutral umpires initiated by Pakistan and later taken up by the ICC, the elite panel of umpires, use of Snickometer, Hawkeye, Hotspot, ball tracking technology that we watch today have all been in use for some time now to make sure that game results are clean and fair.

To be human is also to err at times even with the use of technologies on offer but it is also a fact that since their inception and introduction the application of these technical devices on offer has certainly evolved.

Despite this however even men officiating as ICC umpires have their good and bad days and now are always in danger of being exposed when standing in the middle or in the luxury of a well-catered room for the third umpire.

Not everyone can be like Dickie Bird of old or Simon Taufel, Aleem Dar of the present day lot or comparatively tolerable like Billy Bowden of New Zealand despite his antics in the field.

Pakistan’s recently concluded Test series in South Africa must have been disturbing as a number of decisions, most of them by Australian umpire Steve Davis in the first Test in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Centurion, were reversed because of DRS use.

The umpiring standard was so poor at times that 13 referrals were sued by the batting and bowling teams to make sure that the batsman was out or a fielder had taken a legitimate catch. Davis was the main culprit.

That reminds me of Pakistan’s 3-0 series whitewash over England last year in the UAE where 19 referrals were used during the Dubai Test.

When first introduced it was supposed to be mandatory but later the ICC decided to end mandatory use and left it to the boards of competing teams to mutually agree on the use of DRS, may be because of its opposition by the BCCI which still regards the system as unacceptable because they plead that it is ‘unreliable’.

I suppose they at times may be regretting not having it. The recent case in the Chennai Test in which India beat Australia is one example when Michael Clarke (at 39) was given a let off when he was out and went on to make a hundred.

MCC, the game’s law-making body, in their recent Cricket Committee meeting in Auckland however endorsed their full support of the system after Warren Brennan director of BBG Sports (hotspot) and Ian Taylor, CEO of Animation Research Ltd (virtual eye) presented to the committee their respective technologies on how these are used in cricket.

The committee — headed by former England captain Mike Brearley with illustrious men like Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble and a few others around — agreed that it no longer thinks of DRS in terms of ‘eradicating howlers’ only.

Technology used in the game reveals things which human eye they think is not able to pick in the middle.

Hotspot success rate they declared is 90-95 per cent after new cameras were introduced in the Border-Gavaskar series in 2011-12 in Australia.

They admitted the DRS is good for protecting the integrity of the game as it is proven statistically that it increases the percentage of right decisions in international cricket. Game is worse off if technology is not used. The committee also believed that more training is required for third umpires possibly to the extent whereby the ICC should consider introducing a cadre of third umpires who specialise in TV decision reviews only.

I am sure readers of Dawn would remember the article I wrote early this year about the flawed law which spared bowlers who disturbed the bails at the bowler’s end during the delivery and got away with the ‘dead ball’ decisions.

And runs scored off those deliveries were not allowed to the batsmen for no fault of their own. A law which needed debate. Batsmen tripping on their stumps while facing bowler or hitting stumps while facing a delivery were given out ‘hit wicket’. I suppose that was unfair. Steven Finn of England being the biggest culprit in recent times.

The MCC committee has now debated on it and has changed the law and in future any bowler disturbing the bails or wicket in the process of a delivery at the non-striker’s end would be penalised with a no ball and runs scored off it will be credited to the batsman. A great effort by the MCC.

They have also decided to investigate the thickness of the bat used these days by some batsmen which is obviously unfair to bowlers and advantageous to batsmen clouting the bowlers all round the park with powerful strokes. There is going to be a research team working on it before a law is passed.

Also substitute fielders’ role is discussed.

It is a possibility that in case of sickness and serious injury or illness they will be allowed to eradicate the abuse of substitute fielders in international cricket which previously led to disallowing substitute for injuries recently.