The company that owns Snicko has admitted that the reprieve given to Alex Carey during his maiden Ashes century in Adelaide was due to operator error.
Alex Carey survives caught behind
Carey was on 72* when he attempted a cut shot to a ball from Josh Tongue. After the ball went past his under-edge and was caught by Jamie Smith, England appealed thinking they heard a noise. Umpire Ahsan Raza, however, was unmoved, and Ben Stokes immediately sent the decision upstairs.
Replays using Snicko technology, which picks up on noises made as the ball passes the bat, showed a spike before the ball had reached Carey's bat. Despite the ball passing close to the under-edge, the Snicko spike and the point at which the ball was closest to Carey's bat did not line up, and TV Umpire Chris Gaffaney advised Raza to stick with his original decision of not out. Carey later admitted that he had edged the delivery.
Snicko owners admit error
BBG Sports, the company that owns Snicko, has taken full responsibility for the error. "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," the company was quoted as saying by BBC Sport. "In light of this, BBG Sports takes full responsibility for the error."
It was reported by BBC Sport that the sound used for the review was taken from the stump microphone at the bowlers' end rather than at the strikers' end, causing the discrepancy between the Snicko spike lining up to the video replay. BBG Sport is set to take steps to ensure the error will not be repeated.
Carey went on to reach a century, his first in Ashes cricket, and helped Australia recover from 94-4 to 326-8 at the close of play. At the time of the reprieve, Australia were 245-6.
When asked in a post-play interview whether he had hit the ball from Tongue, Carey said: "I thought there was a bit of a feather or some sort of noise when it passed the bat. It looked a bit funny on the replay didn't it? With the noise coming early. But if I was given out I think I would have reviewed it, probably not confidently though. It was a nice sound as it passed the bat.
"Snicko obviously didn't line up, and that's just the way cricket goes sometimes."
There have been several incidents of controversy around the use of Snicko already in the series. Jamie Smith was given out caught-behind in the first Test match in Perth despite the replays showing that the spike on Snicko appeared after the ball had passed his bat. It took five minutes for the TV Umpire to come to a decision on that dismissal, with umpire Sharfuddoula changing his mind over whether to overturn the onfield decision.
Speaking after play on day one in Adelaide, England bowling coach David Saker said: "I don't think we [England] have done anything about it so far but after today, maybe that might go a bit further. There have been concerns about it for the whole series. We shouldn't be talking about that after a day's play. It should just be better than that."
Ashes 2025-26, 3rd Test scorecard:
3rd Test, Australia vs England
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