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AAP
AAP
Sport
Steve Larkin

'Sack Snicko': technology turmoil tarnishes Ashes

Travis Head had a chat with umpire Ahsan Raza after yet another Snicko controversy at Adelaide Oval. (Joel Carrett/AAP PHOTOS)

Mitchell Starc has called for Snicko to be scrapped amid more technology turmoil in the Ashes.

And cricket legend Ricky Ponting says umpires don't trust technology used in Australia, which he maintains is substandard compared to other countries.

"Snicko needs to be sacked," Australian paceman Starc was heard saying on stump microphones during Thursday's play in the third Ashes Test at Adelaide Oval.

Starc
Stump microphones picked up Mitchell Starc's stinging critique of Snicko. (Joel Carrett/AAP PHOTOS)

"That's the worst technology there is. They make a mistake the other day and they make another mistake today."

Starc's comment came after umpires called for off-field help to decide if Englishman Jamie Smith had been caught by Usman Khawaja.

Facing a Pat Cummins bouncer, Smith missed an attempted shot and the ball travelled to Khawaja lunging forward at first slip.

Umpires called for a review to determine if the ball carried but Snicko replays determined the ball struck Smith's helmet, not a glove.

Starc then made his remark as Australian players queried the decision.

In Cummins' next over, another contentious Snicko review resulted in Smith's dismissal, caught behind.

The Englishman was marched on Snicko evidence showing a noise spike, despite visual uncertainty whether it matched the moment the ball neared his bat.

England captain Ben Stokes couldn't hide his exasperation, standing with arms crossed and repeatedly shaking his head.

The storms followed Ponting saying he understood England's angst at a technology blunder on day one in Adelaide.

England had a review reinstated after Snicko's operators admitted an error denied the tourists Alex Carey's wicket.

Carey, on 72, survived a caught-behind appeal when replays showed a spike on Snicko before the ball even reached his bat. He went on to make a century.

BBG Sports, the founders of Snicko, said human error was behind the mistake.

England complained to match referee Jeff Crowe, who handed a review back to England because of the mistake.

But the reinstatement was scant solace for the tourists, who are expected to raise the issue with the ICC, while Cricket Australia will also ask questions of the operators.

Ponting said the situation was near farcical.

"This technology that we are using here (in Australia) is simply not as good as technology that's used in other countries," the former Australia captain told Channel Seven.

"You talk to the umpires, they'll tell you the same thing. They can't trust it.

"They've got a third umpire sitting up in there that has got to make decisions based on what he's seeing that the technology is providing.

"And sometimes they have a gut feel that it's not right.

"That can't happen. You've got to be able to trust the technology that is in place."

Ponting
Ricky Ponting says technology used in Australia for the DRS system is simply not good enough. (Con Chronis/AAP PHOTOS)

BBG founder Warren Brennan said on Wednesday night his company took "full responsibility for the error" in Carey's case.

BBG operate the Real-Time Snickometer (RTS), known as Snicko, in Australia - the only country using that technology, with all other nations employing a system called UltraEdge.

Australian spinner Nathan Lyon refused to comment on the Snicko squabbles.

England batting coach Marcus Trescothick stopped short of echoing Starc's call for the system to be scrapped.

"We know it's going to be around, we just need to make it as consistent as we can do," Trescothick told reporters.

"It's not an ideal scenario of course. We have been on the back end of a poor one yesterday and a few ones that you sort of question over the course of today.

"So it's up to the powers that be behind the scenes to try and work that out.

"But as players, we have just got to trust in the process."

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