Decision-making improved by 98.5 percent after DRS: Richardson

Dubai, Feb 16 (IANS) International Cricket Council (ICC) chief executive David Richardson on Thursday backed the Decision Review System (DRS), contending that decision-making in the current year has improved to 98.5 percent.

He also acknowledged that the global cricket body is also trying to include the sport at the Olympics.

"I am very proud of the elite panel of match officials and our targets for correct decision making this year currently stands at 94 percent rising to 98.5 percent after DRS," Richardson was quoted as saying by icc-cricket.com on Thursday.

"We also need to determine cricket's strategy in respect of participation in the Olympic Games. Is it something we will continue to explore in the first half of 2017 and if our members agree, they would like to pursue it, then that's when the real work for Olympic inclusion begins," he added.

The former South Africa wicketkeeper also revealed that in order to protect the integrity of the sport, the ICC will also introduce blood testing this year.

Protecting the integrity of the sport, is of fundamental importance to everyone here at the ICC," he said.

"We must continue to provide leadership and support in the global fight against corruption and we will complete the implementation of all agreed recommendations made by the Integrity Working Party."

"But protecting the integrity of cricket goes beyond our Anti-Corruption unit and we must ensure that our anti-doping programme is as effective as possible. We will introduce blood testing in 2017 as part of our ongoing commitment to a drug free sport and will continue to maintain our World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) compliance," Richardson added.

The 57-year-old also stressed on taking the sport to new frontiers by creating more opportunities and increasing the competition in international cricket.

"We have recently appointed a new head of global development, Will Glenwright and he is in the process of developing a global growth strategy for the game that will be launched in the second half of the year," Richardson said.

"In addition to that we will focus on growing participants and fans in two emerging markets, the US and China with a feasibility study and market assessment currently underway in China."

"We will review the performance and merit based funding for our Associate and Affiliate members to ensure better growth and review our ICC High Performance Strategy," he concluded.

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