Hawk-Eye founder Paul Hawkins has slammed Michael Vaughan for the former England player’s remark on the technology following Joe Root’s controversial dismissal in Ranchi Test against India. During the guests’ second innings, a Ravichandran Ashwin delivery crashed into Root’s pad but the umpire was not convinced about the LBW shout. India went for a review.
Although it seemed like the majority of the ball was pitched outside the leg-stump, the technology deemed it fair and gave it out. Some experts and fans were not happy with the decision with Michael Vaughan asking for more transparency in the system so that the viewers also get to see what happens during the tracking process to put “the noise to bed”.
England and its complaint on Umpires call and DRS from captain and Michael Vaughan
It is unfortunate from Michael Vaughan, because, obviously he was a fantastic player, really enjoyed watching him play, and a great commentator, very entertaining. But I think it’s a responsibility to the game, in terms of journalism. Perhaps a little bit more preparation in terms of his role as a journalist may help him explain what’s happening to the huge fan base of cricket so that what he writes is factually correct.
In the game of cricket, where the slightest of margins can sway the course of a match, the advent of technology has significantly altered the dynamics of decision-making. One such innovation, Hawk-Eye, revolutionized the sport by introducing a method to scrutinize close calls, particularly in LBW decisions.
However, amidst the reliance on this technology, a questionable element persists, which is the ‘umpire’s call’. Paul Hawkins, the founder of the ball-tracking technology Hawk-Eye, has provided insight into the rationale behind introducing ‘umpire’s call’ in DRS LBW reviews.
The recent India versus England Test series has reignited the debate surrounding the efficacy of the ‘umpire’s call’. A pivotal LBW decision against Joe Root in Ranchi sparked controversy, highlighting the contentious nature of this review protocol. The debatable LBW dismissal of Zak Crawley in the Rajkot Test sparked England captain Ben Stokes to call for abolishing the ‘umpire’s call’ protocol.
India has a winning 3-1 series lead which has irked the former England cricketer and now famous on X Micheal Vaughan who has strongly criticized the role of DRS and umpires call in the series calling it responsible for England’s loss in the series.
Hawk-eye Inventor Paul Hawkins slams Michael Vaughan for DRS transparency call during 3rd test at Ranchi.
Founder of the Hawk-Eye, Paul Hawkins, hit back at former England captain Micheal Vaughan for his comments on enabling transparency in the decision-making process by the Hawk-Eye.
Michael Vaughan’s comments came after Joe Root’s questionable LBW decision on Day 3 of the fourth Test between England and India at Ranchi. Following his sensational century in the first innings, the 33-year-old, batting on 11, was trapped off a full and straight delivery from Ravichandran Ashwin.
While the on-field umpire denied the home side, they had the call overturned by DRS despite a majority of the ball appearing to be pitching outside the leg stump.
When discussing DRS decisions involving the Hawk-eye, Michael Vaughan said:
“So here is a simple solution to help improve transparency and accountability: stick a camera and microphone in the truck so as that a decision is being made, we all know exactly what is going on, and how much humans are involved. You could argue that those running the technology in the truck are as important as the two standing umpires,”
In response to Michael Vaughan’s comments, Hawkins said on The Analytics Podcast:
“The commentary, I think, is a little bit uneducated. It is unfortunate from Vaughan, because, obviously fantastic player, really enjoyed watching him play, and a great commentator, very entertaining. But I think it’s a responsibility to the game, in terms of journalism,”
“Perhaps a little bit more preparation in terms of his role as a journalist may help him explain what’s happening to the huge fan base of cricket so that what he writes is factually correct. In the same way as Hawk-Eye has an obligation to be factually correct, perhaps journalists do too,” he added.
Joe Root’s dismissal proved costly as England collapsed to be bowled out for a paltry 145 in the second innings, setting India a target of 192. Rohit Sharma’s Men survived a mini-hiccup midway through their run chase and completed the win by five wickets on Day 4 to take an unassailable 3-1 series lead.
Paul Hawkins provides a detailed explanation of the DRS post Michael Vaughan’s comments
Paul Hawkins further clarified how the DRS operators work and the people involved in ensuring it remains foolproof. He also confirmed the presence of cameras inside the truck for quality control.
“So, there’s three people typically on the Hawk-Eye tracking side of the system and then another person who does the UltraEdge in typical production. So, one person’s doing the virtual reality – the output side of things – and there’s two independent people that do the tracking, so there’s no single point of failure,” said Hawkins.
He added:
“The cameras come into the two independent tracking systems, there’s two sets of readers, two separate operators. And so every single ball – you’ve got essentially two watches and you’re checking that they’re always the same and you’ve got that quality control between the two systems,”
So for every day, the guys will go out and measure the width of the stumps. And so that gets entered into the system. So you’re working off of the actual width of those stumps,”
“A good process that’s evolved in terms of quality control is that there is a van camera, which is more an internal process, making sure people aren’t on their phones. But the best thing in terms of quality control is an automatic screengrab of the tracking system is taken and that automatically goes to the ICC,” he said.
“So whilst it will never go to broadcast because there’s lots of intellectual property within those screengrabs for the internal quality control for the people that need to make sure that the technology providers are providing accurate answers, that’s all done,” concluded Hawkins.
While several players and experts have questioned potential frailties in the technology used for decision-making, it has undeniably played a massive role in substantially reducing howlers.
It is unfortunate from Michael Vaughan, because, obviously he was a fantastic player, really enjoyed watching him play, and a great commentator, very entertaining. But I think it’s a responsibility to the game, in terms of journalism. Perhaps a little bit more preparation in terms of his role as a journalist may help him explain what’s happening to the huge fan base of cricket so that what he writes is factually correct.