Heat rises on cricket review system after dumping of Hot Spot

THE use of technology will come under increased scrutiny at an ICC board meeting next week.

Australia's batsman Usman Khawaja walks off dejectedly after being given out caught behind at Old Trafford even though upon review Hot Spot gave no evidence of an edge

THE use of technology will come under increased scrutiny at an ICC board meeting next week.

It comes after Hot Spot, the controversial heat-seeking technology, was dropped from the forthcoming Ashes series in Australia.

Channel Nine, the host broadcaster, has decided not to pay for the use of Hot Spot, which means that the device, used by the third umpire to rule on faint edges, will not be part of the Decision Review System during the series, which begins in Brisbane on November 21.

The situation increases pressure on the ICC to improve the Decision Review System, which came in for criticism throughout the Ashes series in England this year. The ICC has set up a working party to examine the continuing problems surrounding the use of technology, with the subject due to be discussed at the final board meeting of the year, which begins in London next Thursday.

The decision of Channel Nine not to incorporate Hot Spot has highlighted that the ICC has no input into an increasingly high-profile area of the game, having left the arrangements on technology to the home cricket board and its host broadcaster.

The ICC stressed yesterday that the Decision Review System could still be used without Hot Spot, using "approved broadcast technologies", although it seems that the third umpire will now rely for the Ashes only on Eagle Eye, the ball-tracking technology preferred to Hawk-Eye by Australian broadcasters, along with stump microphones and television replays.

"The ICC was aware that this was a possibility," a spokesman for the game's governing body said yesterday. "The DRS can still be used if Hot Spot is not available, but this is a matter for Cricket Australia and its broadcaster to resolve. The DRS allows the TV umpire to use the available and approved broadcast technologies to correct umpiring errors - the focus of the TV umpire will not change." Cricket Australia declined to comment, while the ECB was unaware of the development before reports appeared in the Australian press.

Hot Spot costs about 150,000 pounds ($253,000) to use for a five-Test series, a fee met by broadcasters rather than the home cricket board. Channel Nine has decided not to pay for the technology, as its unreliability during the Ashes series in England meant that it no longer represented value for money. Warren Brennan, the inventor of Hot Spot, admitted during the series that the technology did not always detect faint edges.

"Channel Nine has got a new deal with Cricket Australia which has cost them a lot more money. I gather there had to be some restructuring of costs,"  Brennan told Fairfax Media.

In July, the broadcaster paid a record fee of around $450m to retain exclusive rights to international cricket in Australia for the next five years.

The Decision Review System attracted an unprecedented amount of attention during England's recent 3-0 Ashes series victory. Although there were a number of contentious moments, Hot Spot and its operation was at the centre of several, including the decisions against Jonathan Trott at Trent Bridge, Ashton Agar at Lord's, and Usman Khawaja and Kevin Pietersen at Old Trafford.

The dismissals of Trott and Khawaja prompted the ECB and Cricket Australia to seek respective clarifications over the decision-making process. The two governing bodies then produced a paper for the ICC's consideration at the end of the series.

Attempts to introduce improved technology, including a Real Time Snickometer device, have been under trial and will be discussed in London next week.

A new trial regulation allowing a team's reviews to be "topped up" to two after 80 overs of an innings has been introduced and will be used during the Ashes.

The Times