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The England and Wales Cricket Board has held talks with Cricket Australia about the possibility of replacing the decision review system (DRS) technology Snicko with an alternative UltraEdge for the Boxing Day Test at Melbourne after controversy on the opening two days of the Adelaide Test.
In bilateral series, DRS technology is the responsibility of the home board, which in practice is passed on to the main domestic broadcast rights holder, in this case Fox Sports. However, the Guardian has learned that Cricket Australia’s free-to-air rights holder, Channel 7, has a DRS contract with Hawk-Eye Innovations, the company behind UltraEdge, so there is an alternative available should the hosts seek to make a change amid unhappiness from players on both sides.
Mitchell Starc was overheard on the stump mic calling for Snicko to be “sacked” in the afternoon session on day two at Adelaide, with Australia’s players convinced Jamie Smith had gloved a catch to Usman Khawaja at slip, though replays showed the ball had not carried.
The England wicketkeeper was then given out on review for an edge on another Pat Cummins short ball, even though the audio spike shown by Snicko did not match up with the pictures shown to the third umpire.
On the first day, Alex Carey escaped after nicking to Smith off Josh Tongue on 72 after an operator error produced an unreliable sound wave showing a gap between the noise and the ball passing the bat.
As primary rights holders, Fox has appointed the tech company BBG Sports to operate DRS using Snicko, whereas in England Sky Sports uses the UltraEdge system pioneered by Hawk-Eye Innovations, which is owned by Sony.
Hawk-Eye’s contract with Channel 7 is understood to have led to discussions over a possible mid-series switch. While BBG’s Snicko is being used for the Ashes, Hawk-Eye’s UltraEdge is used in Australia in the Big Bash League so the technology is available if an agreement can be reached.
Cricket Australia and Fox would need to reach a financial settlement with BBG. The ECB is understood to be involved in the discussions, but the final decision rests elsewhere. BBG issued a statement accepting responsibility for the Carey error at the close of day one, but did not respond to the controversies on day two.
Speaking to the Australian radio station SEN before the start of the second day’s play, Cricket Australia’s chief executive, Todd Greenberg, expressed his unhappiness with BBG’s handling of the Carey incident. “There’s supposed to be a fail-safe with the technology and it didn’t happen. In my view that’s not good enough,” he said. “We’re asking a lot of questions of the providers through the broadcasters and hoping to get some answers so we can be assured it won’t happen again.”
Before play, England also took the matter to the match referee, Jeff Crowe, who restored the review they had lost as a result of the Carey incident.
Neither Cricket Australia nor the ECB commented at the end of day two.
