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Technology is not the answer to improving umpiring standards because the science behind several innovations is not 100 percent accurate, according to a senior sports executive with Australia’s Channel Nine.

Poor decisions from the on-field officials in the Sydney Test between Australia and India have led to suggestions that the third umpire should have access to extra assistance on top of straight replays.

Nine uses its snickometer to demonstrate the sound of edges behind, Hawk-Eye and the strike-zone to judge lbw decisions and the infra-red Hot Spot camera to display whether the ball has hit the bat. However, Steve Crawley, an executive sports producer with the network, said some of the innovations could not be entirely relied upon.

“I’d hate us to be involved in the judicial system of cricket,” Crawley told the Sydney Morning Herald. “We’ve only got one thing 100% backed up by science and that’s Hot Spot; the others aren’t 100%.

“Snicko is very well informed but it’s not 100%, and Hawk-Eye’s not 100%. And also there’s the time-frame. Yesterday, with one of the decisions, Snicko, like all computer systems, went down and it had to be rebooted and it was four minutes before we got it up. Mostly, it’s only a couple of deliveries but those sorts of things can happen.”

Source:Cricket News