Why India won’t adopt the DRS anytime soon.

Much has been written about India’s unwillingness to adopt the DRS (Decision Review System).  From an analogy perspective, what’s playing out is very similar to getting any large entity to adopt a new and potentially disruptive technology.  

Large entities adopt game-changers (whether concepts, business models or technology) once the idea is mature, there is a clear benefit to adoption and after there is market precedent.

For example – the one game-changer which India has adopted has been T20 cricket in the form of the IPL. But while considered to be “game changing” – the fact is that T20 was pioneered and played domestically in the UK since 2003 and internationally since 2005. The BCCI didn’t “adopt” T 20’s until after the ICL (the Indian Cricket League), in 2007.

There was a lot of political noise around the ICL which masked the fact that the audience turned up, watched and enjoyed. More importantly, the BCCI watched its definition of “the Indian cricket fan” changing – children, senior citizens and women were present to watch the matches.

So, the IPL had its pilot run in the ICL and it created the impetus to adopt, while being safely buffered from any downside of being an early adopter.

Another reason why a “market leader” will adopt new technology is if it has a clear “functionality”  advantage. The biggest problem with DRS is that, it doesn’t tick this box unequivocally. As a game, cricket has lived with human error in umpiring. DRS introduces technology but does not eliminate error – it only reduces the incidence of errors from 8% to 3%.  When technology replaces human effort, the assumption is that it will be error-proof, this assumption is invalid in the case of the DRS.

The final dimension has been about how the ‘process of adoption’ has been managed.  The fact is, that India had a lot to gain from adopting DRS – because of ‘Sydneygate 2008’. Harbhajan and Symonds aside, DRS could have ensured that the two tired, stressed umpires in that game, were not pressured into the kind of ‘howlers’ that came to pass.

DRS is not breakthrough. It is incremental. India has, along with other countries, adopted incremental technology in the past – whether it’s the third umpire or using stump microphones / camera’s.

Unfortunately,   the process of adoption has degenerated into a “us v.s them” or “BCCI v.s. the ROW” (Rest of the World) tug-of-war. Because of this, the decision of whether to adopt or not has become personal. And anyone who has dealt with large entities will know – when the leader has a personal stance on an issue – the system will filter out any objective data point which does not bolster the “party-line”. 

So when will India adopt DRS? -  One or both of two developments will have to come to pass:- Either the composition of the current leadership team at the BCCI changes, or, the technology stabilizes to the point where it completely eliminates human error. The decision to adopt then ‘degenerates’ to common sense.