The control of the Decision Review System will be taken out of the hands of Sky for the next Ashes Test as the International Cricket Council reacts to the umpiring controversy at Trent Bridge by handing more power to the third umpire.
The ICC will employ an independent technician to provide dedicated Hawk-Eye and Hot Spot information for the third umpire, Kumar Dharmasena, at Old Trafford in a trial which could be rolled out across international cricket.It follows complaints from the England and Wales Cricket Board after the dismissal of Jonathan Trott in the first innings at Trent Bridge when he was given out lbw without the relevant Hot Spot evidence because the controller of the thermal-imaging system was producing a replay of Joe Root’s dismissal to the previous delivery for the Sky live coverage.
At Old Trafford Dharmasena will benefit from his own DRS feed and dedicated Hot Spot and Hawk-Eye technician, a situation that will benefit both the officials and the television producers. The third umpire will not be able to intervene in incidents such as the controversy at Trent Bridge when the on-field umpire missed a clear edge off Stuart Broad, but this could change if the experiment in Manchester is successful.
“It is a system where there will be banks of television in the third umpire’s room with Hawk-Eye, replays and Hot Spot directly available to him to look at independently to what is on television to see if down the line we can place more authority with the umpire to over-rule [television],” said Dave Richardson, chief executive of the ICC. “At the moment the third umpire talks to the TV producer and says, ‘Can I have a look at thisIJ’ What you see on TV is what the third umpire is seeing, but with this he would, for example, be able to check when the TV goes for an ad break. The idea is you give the third umpire access the information he needs much quicker and you are not reliant on the television producer to do it.” An independent feed has cost implications and the ICC has refused to pay in the past, which is why the system is provided by broadcasters, who use Hot Spot and Hawk-Eye as a tool for their coverage. “It would involve cost but first, we need to establish if it works, and, secondly, can we afford itIJ