LONDON:Players will be able to challenge officials’ decisions in Tests as a matter of course from October onwards, the ICC announced on Thursday.

A joint meeting of the ICC board and its chief executives’ committee at Lord’s ratified the May decision that the Umpire Decision Review System (UDRS) is set to be introduced permanently into the Test arena on the basis of a “phased roll-out” from October 2009.

The system, which was trialled for nine months, gives players the opportunity to request a review by the third umpire of a decision made by the on-field umpire they believed was wrong. Significantly, this was the first time players had been allowed to challenge a decision. Once a player asked for a referral, the third umpire was able to view replays and relay information back to the umpire on the field who then had to decide whether or not to reverse his original decision.

The October roll-out date means the system won’t be used during the Ashes series between England and Australia, which starts in July. In May, ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat said that from October the plan was for sides to be limited to two unsuccessful appeals per innings as was the case during the West Indies-England series in February and March.

There was an understanding the third umpire would advise his on-field colleague to change their minds only if they had made an obvious error. But some third umpires were criticised for effectively ‘over-ruling’ the standing umpires when their decisions could, in the opinion of many observers, fairly have gone in favour of either side.