Snicko has been a point of confusion and controversy during this Ashes series and there was a fresh talking point on the first day in Adelaide as Australia’s century hero Alex Carey escaped England’s vociferous appeal and review, before later admitting he should have been given out.
Carey was on 72 when he tried to cut a Josh Tongue delivery which bounced across the left hander. England’s slip cordon were convinced they heard a noise and appealed immediately, but umpire Ahsan Raza was unmoved.
England reviewed the decision and Snicko showed a clear spike, but – not for the first time in the series – the noise tremor failed to match with the picture on screen, spiking two frames before the ball passed the bat.
Carey was cleared and went on to make his first Ashes century.
“I thought there was a bit of a feather or some sort of noise when it passed the bat,” Carey later admitted. “It looked a bit funny on the replay, didn’t it, with the noise coming a bit early. If I was given out I think I would have reviewed it but probably not confidently. It was a nice sound as it passed the bat.
“Snicko obviously didn’t line up, did it. That’s just the way cricket goes sometimes, you have a bit of luck, and maybe it went my way today.”
Asked if he is a “walker”, Carey smiled: “Clearly not.”
England’s bowling coach, David Saker called for the technology to improve after several incidents during the Ashes.
“There was obviously a spike but it was either really early or late,” he said. “Our boys are really confident he hit, Jamie Smith behind the stumps is not the sort of guy who would be like that unless he thought that.
“But you’ve got the technology. We’re pretty confident he hit but he’d be the person to be asking. He did look guilty. That’s the technology and I think they need to make sure it’s working better than it did. Even the Patty Cummins one [when the Australia captain was given out], there seemed to be some timings out.”
Saker said England had been unhappy with the technology throughout the series, without elaborating on specific instances, and might raise the matter with match officials.
“After today, that may go a bit further,” he said of complaints within the England camp. “It should be better than that. It is what it is.”
Speaking on Australia’s Channel 7, the former international umpire Simon Taufel called it an “amazing” incident that he’d never seen before.
“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 said. “The confusing element here for everyone was that the spike occurred at least a couple of frames before the bat, which was just amazing.”
He added: “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.”
Snicko technology is developed by BBG Sports, and its founder Warren Brennan later accepted responsibility, telling Australian publication The Age: “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.
“In light of this, BBG Sports takes full responsibility for the error.”
Australia finished day one on 326-8 with Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon at the crease, after Carey’s ton gave the hosts a foothold in the game, which is well balanced going into what is expected to be a brtually hot day two in Adelaide.
The contentious incident came two years after Carey was cast as the villain of the 2023 Ashes, when he threw down Jonny Bairstow's stumps in the second Test at Lord’s. The run-out was legal but triggered a “spirit of cricket” debate, and enraged England fans jeered Carey for the rest of the drawn series.
Wednesday’s escape may do little to boost his popularity in England but, in Adelaide, Carey had the home crowd chanting his name and he savoured a standing ovation when he reached his century.
“You’re not always going to be liked. Sometimes it depends which side of the fence you’re on,” said Carey. “There’s always heroes and villains.”
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