Sachin Tendulkar 'not against DRS'

But referral system must use technologies such as Hot Spot and Snickometer for accuracy, says Indian batting legend.

Sachin Tendulkar has defended India's refusal to use the Umpire Decision Review System (DRS) during their upcoming tour of England, saying it needed to be more consistent.

DRS, which allows teams to challenge the umpire's on-field decisions, has been accepted by most of cricket's leading nations and was in use at the recent World Cup, co-hosted and won by India.

The world champions, however, have been opposed to the system from the time it was used on a trial basis in their series against Sri Lanka in 2008.

The International Cricket Council recently called for DRS to be used across all formats but India have maintained their stance.

"I am not against DRS, but I feel it will be more effective with the support of the Snickometer and Hot Spot technology. This will give more consistent results," Tendulkar was quoted as saying by the Cricinfo website yesterday.

Hot Spot is an infra-red imaging system used to determine whether the ball has struck the batsman's bat or pad. The audio Snickometer is used as a guide to whether the ball touched the bat on its way to the wicketkeeper.

The latter has not caught on with cricket authorities due to the time it takes to produce an accurate finding.

Meanwhile, the Indian women's cricket team left for a tour of England yesterday hoping to claim a share of the limelight the men's team are so used to dominating.

Amid the busy men's calendar, the women's team will feature in two four-team limited-overs tournaments in England starting next week.

Jhulan Goswami, the captain, said "it is important to do well abroad" in order to raise the profile of the team, which will play in a Twenty20 tournament from June 23-27, and a one-day tournament from June 30-July 27. Women's teams from Australia, New Zealand and England will also compete in the tournaments.

"Our international performances look good when we play at home, but we need to do better while playing in series overseas," Goswami said. "We need to do well like the men's team if we hope to be taken notice of."