Joe Root’s controversial DRS decision in the India vs England Test caused a ripple effect in the cricketing community. England skipper Ben Stokes had already called for the abolition of the umpire’s call, but after Root’s dismissal, some have been up in arms about the whole review system.
Following the backlash behind the overturned LBW decision, Hawkeye Founder Paul Hawkins has cleared the air about how the technology works.
Paul Hawkins on trajectory, pitching and Joe Root’s dismissal
“So firstly, you measure the width of the stumps on each day of the Test. That then becomes the lines between what’s pitched in line and what’s not. It was a very close,” he told Simon Hughes on the ‘The Analyst’ podcast.
“In tennis, you will occasionally get zero mm in or zero mm out (in terms of ball pitching outside the line). But in tennis, it’s decided that it’s not out until it’s not zero mm, but it’s 1mm out. So, in tennis, we shift the bounce mark just for the presentation perspective, so a zero mm in becomes a 1mm in to enable the viewers to see the mark.”
“But that’s just a presentation thing, nothing different with the tracking or the answer. It just makes it clearer to the viewer. It would have been clearer on TV if the track hadn’t come off the ball, so you can see more clearly over the line, which happens automatically if the ball has pitched outside the leg stump.”
On why Joe Root was given out, he said:
“It must be 1mm more in than out (Joe Root case) because otherwise, we wouldn’t have said it’s pitched in line. But it is a very close one. As per the laws, we gave the right answer. But we failed in the ability to not be the story and perhaps there’s a learning opportunity to improve our presentation and stuff to make those really close ones slightly clearer.”
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