“Not good enough”: CA chief condemns Snicko howler

Snicko operator BBG Sports has taken full responsibility for a glitch which cost England dearly on Day 1 of the third Ashes Test in Adelaide.

Australian keeper-batsman Alex Carey, who went on to make 106 - his third Test century, appeared to edge the ball earlier in his innings only to be given not out.

Carey was on 72 when he played at a Josh Tongue delivery which was taken by English keeper Jamie Smith who quickly asked for a review.

But the initial decision of not out given by umpire Ahsan Raza was upheld and Carey, who admitted to feathering the ball, was free to continue his innings.

Cricket Australia (CA) CEO Todd Greenberg admits he has plenty of questions relating to the Carey DRS howler.

As the governing body, does CA carry any of the responsibility or culpability for the technology used?

“It certainly caused me some heartburn because the whole idea of technology is to take away the clanger or the howler,” Greenberg said on SEN Cricket.

“From what I can understand having dug into it last night and this morning is human error. There’s two human errors there - one is the actual decision from the umpire, and then there’s supposed to be a failsafe with the technology and it didn’t happen.

“In my view it’s not good enough. We’re asking a lot of questions of the provider through the broadcasters and we’re hoping to get some answers so we can be assured it won’t happen again.”

Given BBG Sports might have simply put up the wrong stump mic audio, it seems as though the system is built on a house of cards.

“I heard the same thing and I thought surely we’re in an age where there’s a failsafe there where that can’t happen,” Greenberg continued.

“So that’s the question I’m asking this morning is if that did happen how do we make sure it doesn’t happen again.

“I know there’s a lot of people busily trying to figure that out this morning.”

Is CA taking a hands on approach to correct the issue?

“I wouldn’t say we’re very hands on because ultimately these are providers that are licensed by the ICC. The broadcasters then engage that supplier,” Greenberg added.

“But the short answer is we’re not happy with it, we don’t think it’s good enough and we definitely think that we need to be assured that it won’t happen again.

“We’re asking the right questions of the right people.”

The review that England lost has since been reinstated as reported by SEN Cricket's Tom Morris.

Carey made the most of the reprieve to reach triple figures, but it should have been a different story according to a BBG Sports statement.

“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,” read a statement to the BBC from BBG Sports, who operates the system for broadcaster Fox Sports.

“In light of this, BBG Sports takes full responsibility for the error.”

SEN Cricket’s Gerard Whateley felt that technology failed the English on this occasion.

“On 72 there was a DRS review for an under edge, caught behind. There was a spike on the Snicko but it was far more than a couple of frames,” said Whateley.

“He’s hit it and the technology has failed. It’s not within the parameters to be able to give it out.

“So that’s a fail on all fronts. There is a safeguard there, it doesn’t have to marry up exactly but it has to be within a couple of frames. This is outside that realm.

“There’s nothing else that it can be. So Taufel says from his experience that it is out, but that’s not really how it applies.”

Whateley was referencing former umpire Simon Taufel who discussed the incident on Channel 7 immediately after.

“There was a caught behind called on Alex Carey. The DRS was applied and for the third umpire to overturn the not out decision, we need to see a clear deflection off the bat, or we have to see a spike next to the bat or up to one frame past the bat,” Taufel explained.

“The confusing element here for everyone was that the spike occurred at least a couple of frames before the bat. Which was just amazing.

“What was interesting in this particular case and in my experience, I have never seen a spike like this occur without the bat hitting something like a pad or the ground or the ball hitting the pad.

“There's nothing else out there, absolutely nothing else out there, so my gut tells me from all of my experience on field and also as a TV Umpire that I think Alex Carey has actually hit that ball and the technology calibration hasn't been quite right to game the outcome that it was looking for.”

Regardless, Carey was able to put the near-miss behind him and push through for a special hometown hundred which he dedicated to his late father Gordon.

Day 2 will resume from 10:30am AEDT (10am ACDT) with Australia 8/326. Mitch Starc (33) and Nathan Lyon (0) will be at the crease.

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