Hayden, Manjrekar highlight major flaw in snicko meter after KL Rahul dismissal

Former cricketers Matthew Hayden and Sanjay Manjrekar have highlighted a major flaw in the snicko meter after controversial dismissal of KL Rahul on Day 1 of the first Test between India and Australia in Perth. Notably, Rahul was dismissed for 26 (74) as he edged Mitchell Starc to wicketkeeper Alex Carey. However, the star batter wasn’t given out on the field prompting Australia to go to the third umpire via DRS (Decision Review System).

On replays, the snicko meter technology managed to catch some noise as the ball moved past the bat. However, at the same time Rahul’s bat hit his pad. While everyone assumed that the benefit of the doubt will go to the batter and Rahul will be adjudged not out, much to everyone’s surprise third umpire Richard Illingworth made the on-field umpire reverse his decision to rule the batter out.

At the end of the day’s play, Matthew Hayden and Sanjay Manjrejar highlighted major flaw in the technology. Hayden said that there should’ve been two noises on the snicko meter.

“Yeah, look, I really feel for KL Rahul. I think in our ears we heard a Nick, but look, the problem I have with Snicko is that it’s actually a marriage of sound and vision. Now when things are traveling at 1/1,000 between frame, what my question was to the umpires was why wasn’t there two noises, because clearly there was the outside edge that was close and then afterwards, it then became bat on pad. Why were there not two snicks? It was inconclusively conclusive,” said Hayden on Star Sports.

On the other hand, Manjrekar also maintained that Rahul didn’t edge the ball as snicko only showed one noise which was conclusive enough to rule the decision in his favour.

India finish Day 1 in a strong position

“Noise was the bat hitting the pad, right, and we had the naked eye to confirm that that it was the bat coming down and hitting the pad. And it’s something that is very obvious. So, the snicko would have registered that. It does that because it makes a noise. Forget about the edge, the bat hitting the pad. You can see the pad actually moving. Now that audio should have been on the snicko, right? But the snicko is reacting only to one sound. So obviously, it’s the pad sound if there was another reaction on the snicko earlier with outside edge and the other one with the pad, and we see that so often where you see two reactions. Once it’s the pad, the other is the bat. Here there was only one reaction and it had to be the bat hitting the pad because that was only one certainty in that whole scheme of things, the bat hitting the pad because we could see it with the naked eye,” said Manjrekar.

AUS vs IND 1st Test Day 1 Highlights

Meanwhile, India’s stand-in skipper Jasprit Bumrah was in full flow with the ball as he scalped four wickets in the day finishing with figures of 4/17 in ten overs. Bumrah got the prized scalps of Usman Khawaja (8), Smith, Marnus Labuschagne (2) and debutant Nathan McSweeney (10). Apart from him, Mohammed Siraj (2/17) also chipped in with two wickets as Australia finished the day on 67/7 in reply to India’s 150 in the first innings trailing by 83 runs.