Hawk-Eye founder says cricket may have been 'too hasty' in embracing DRS technology

The founder of the Hawk-Eye technology has said that cricket may have adopted the technology used by the umpires too quickly and without conducting sufficient trials.

According to the Guardian, Paul Hawkins founded the Hawk-Eye in 2001 to provide broadcasters with a computer system that could determine whether LBW decisions were correct and has gone on to utilise the technology in tennis and other sports.

The report further said that the use of the Decision Review System (DRS) has been very controversial throughout an Ashes series that England lead 2-0, even before disputed allegations that players were adding silicone tape to their bats to fool the Hot Spot system that can visually detect fine edges.

Stating that cricket may have been too hasty in embracing the technology, Hawkins said that cricket has not done as much testing as necessary unlike other sports, adding that the ICC may feel that since it has tested it in live conditions so they are inheriting broadcast technology rather than developing officiating technology.

According to Hawkins, football's Goal Decision System has been very heavily tested, adding that technology developed for broadcasters was necessarily different to that designed to aid officials.

Hawkins, who last year sold Hawk-Eye to Sony and is working to develop systems to help baseball and American football officials, however, backed Hot Spot, saying that it is a 'fantastic piece of technology' and has been good for viewers.

Stating that the solution to developing a fool-proof system that showed whether a player had edged the ball might lie in engineering rather than technology, Hawkins further said that batsmen should have micropore tape, durable and transparent so that they can prove their innocence even if they get an inside edge on to the pad.

Hawk-Eye's ball-tracking technology is used to review LBW decisions but a rival firm, Warren Brennan's BBG Sports, provides the Hot Spot technology and the Snickometer sound analysis tool currently used by broadcasters but not by officials, the report added.