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England will consider making a formal complaint to match officials over the accuracy of the decision review system after the technology company behind Snicko admitted a major “error” on the first day of the third Test in Adelaide.
Alex Carey was on 72 when he tried to cut away a ball from England fast bowler Josh Tongue. England’s slip cordon were convinced they heard the noise of Carey’s bat on the ball as it travelled through to the gloves of wicketkeeper Jamie Smith, and appealed instantly when umpire Ahsan Raza remained unmoved.
Snicko showed a large spike but it did not marry up with the pictures on screen, where the ball passed the bat two frames later. It meant officials could not overturn the decision and Carey was allowed to continue his innings.
The Adelaide native went on to hit a century on his home ground before falling to spinner Will Jacks on 106, as he led Australia to 326-8 at the close of play.
Carey later admitted hitting the ball, saying: “I thought there was a bit of a feather or some sort of noise when it passed the bat. It looked a but funny on the replay, didn’t it, with the noise coming a bit early. If I was given out I think I would have reviewed it but probably not confidently. It was a nice sound as it passed the bat.
“Snicko obviously didn’t line up, did it. That’s just the way cricket goes sometimes, you have a bit of luck, and maybe it went my way today.”
Asked if he is a “walker”, Carey smiled: “Clearly not.”
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Alex Carey went on to rack up a century on his home ground (AFP via Getty Images)
The visitors appear to have lost faith in the system, having seen Jamie Smith dismissed in a similar situation in the first Test at Perth, where the picture once again appeared out of sync with the audio reading. England use a different technology called UltraEdge for matches hosted on home soil.
The technology used by FoxTel and Channel Seven, the host broadcasters in Australia, is produced by a company based in New Zealand called BBG Sports, and is not the same as the UltraEdge system used for matches broadcast in England by Sky Sports.
BBG Sports’ founder Warren Brennan told Australian publication The Age: “Given that Alex Carey admitted he had hit the ball in question, the only conclusion that can be drawn from this is that the Snicko operator at the time must have selected the incorrect stump mic for audio processing.
“In light of this, BBG Sports takes full responsibility for the error.”
England’s Australian bowling coach, David Saker, summed up the mood of frustration in the visiting dressing room as he hinted that the matter would be raised with the match referee.
“I don’t think we’ve done anything about it so far but after today, maybe that might go a bit further,” he said. “The boys were pretty confident he hit it. I think the calibration of the snicko is out by quite a bit and that has probably been the case for the series. There’s been some things that don’t really measure up. At that stage, it was a pretty important decision.
“There have been concerns about it for the whole series. We shouldn’t be talking about this after a day’s play, it should just be better than that. These things hurt, but you get through it. In this day and age you’d think the technology is good enough to pick things up like that.”
