Hawk-Eye shows a blind spot as officials admit system erred

Misbah-ul-Haq, captain of the Pakistan cricket team, has been told by Hawk-Eye officials that the technology erred during Pakistan's second Test against New Zealand, but as Pakistan has been happy to use the system before the error is unlikely to change their opinion. Aamir Qureshi / AFPShow less

Hawk-Eye officials conceded that their review technology erred in a decision in which Pakistan opener Shan Masood was dismissed on the final day of the second Test against New Zealand in Dubai last month.

Masood was given out leg-before for 40 by the on-field umpire, Paul Reiffel.

The opener reviewed the decision and, after much delay, Hawk-Eye’s ball-tracking technology backed up Reiffel’s decision.

After the delivery, the projected path Hawk-Eye showed the ball taking caught everyone by surprise, because it was a projection that baldly denied what viewers had seen.

The bowler, the left-handed Trent Boult, swung the ball in to Masood, also left-handed, at yorker length.

TV replays showed the ball pitching and carrying on with the angle, striking Masood’s back heel.

However, Hawk-Eye’s projection showed the ball pitching and then, effectively, spinning away to strike leg-stump.

It was about as unlikely a path as could be for a ball of that angle, speed and length.

Both Pakistan and New Zealand were baffled and the hosts subsequently asked the International Cricket Council (ICC) whether they could meet with Hawk-Eye officials to discuss the inconsistency in ball-tracking as well as the decision.

The ICC, which receives data from Hawk-Eye for every Decision Review System (DRS), had been alerted to the anomaly by its own officials as soon as the incident occurred.

During a meeting at the ICC’s offices at Dubai last week, Hawk-Eye acknowledged to the ICC, Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq and manager Moin Khan that the projection used in the broadcast was incorrect.

However, they insisted that had the projection been right, it still would have shown the ball clipping leg-stump and not hitting it full, as shown at the time, and so the on-field decision – which ruled that Masood was out – would have been upheld.

Hawk-Eye officials explained that the incident brought together a unique set of circumstances which led to an operator making an input error, which subsequently led to what TV viewers saw.

Moin and Misbah were told that the reduced number of cameras – four were being used as opposed to six – as well as the fact that Masood’s bat and the square-leg umpire obscured a crucial couple of frames in the ball’s flight all contributed to getting the projection wrong.

Officials at Hawk-Eye, which supplies ball-tracking technology in cricket, tennis and football, did not respond to queries.

Several officials familiar with the case confirmed the sequence of events.

Pakistan have been happy to use technology in decision-making in cricket, and the error is unlikely to change their view.

But it may rekindle, once again, the spectre of a decision that went against them in the 2011 World Cup semi-final against India.

Then, Sachin Tendulkar was given out leg-before at Mohali only for Hawk-Eye to show – incredulously for most people – the ball missing leg-stump.

Hawk-Eye, unusually, issued a public statement insisting nothing untoward or erroneous had occurred.

It hardly matters what other boards make of the error. It only matters how the Indian board view it.

They have long been sceptical of the predictive aspect of ball-tracking, which failed in this case, and refuse to use the DRS in their bilateral series.

It is their opposition, as the game’s most powerful board, that has prevented the DRS from being implemented throughout international cricket.

Admittedly, the incident represented a rare error, Hawk-Eye’s first, those attending the Dubai meeting were told, since September 2011, when a tracking error led to the dismissal of the late Phil Hughes at a Test in Sri Lanka.

Since then, they estimate, they have accurately tracked approximately 500,000 deliveries in international cricket.

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