Cricket: DRS providers fork out $500k to enhance technology

DRS providers Animation Research are forking out $500,000 to enhance the technology system used for international cricket. Photo / Getty Images.

DRS providers Animation Research are forking out $500,000 to enhance the technology system used for international cricket.

The Dunedin-based company's chief executive Ian Taylor said today the idea is to take the technology to another level and provide the third umpire with enhanced information.

''We pay for that. It's our call. We should be taking technology to them," Taylor said today.

''There are some areas where we think it could be improved to another level, but there's no funding from the International Cricket Council."

Work on research and development has already started and the hope is it will be ready for use around the end of next year.

Taylor has had a frustrating weekend, with the DRS system wrongly in the firing line over the adjudication on an lbw decision against New Zealand batsman Tom Latham.

Third umpire Paul Reiffel backed the original not out decision of colleague Richard Kettleborough, but it highlighted frustrations with a system which could be so much more efficient.

It wasn't that the ultimate decision was wrong, more the way it was reached.

''Frustrated and embarrassed," is how Taylor described his operators' perspective.

''I've argued for a long time there should be a way for our operators to be ICC accredited. It gets rid of all fears of corruption. It's like saying the umpire is corrupted.
''Those guys standing in the middle are really skilled. But a totally different skill set and mindset is needed to understand the technology."

Taylor favours specially trained third officials who are part of the ICC's technology team and who should know each morning who he's talking to in the control truck out the back.

''We are not allowed to talk to them. If we had been allowed to talk to (Reiffel) yesterday we'd had said we have ball track going into the bounce (before Latham played his attempted sweep shot), there's nothing coming out immediately after it. We see it hitting the bat. Full stop."

The DRS operators have available angles which cannot be shown to the third umpire. This is barmy. The operators knew within seconds Latham had hit the ball but could not advise Reiffel.

And don't get him started on lbw protocols.

''The process takes ages. Within 10s of a ball being bowled we have a 2D graphic. There's the impact point, there it is missing the stumps.

''We get instructions that say there is going to be a process in place where they'll talk through this, this and this," Taylor said. ''It's frustrating because we've got the answer but are not allowed to talk to him."

He maintains the DRS system is working ''very well". But it's highlighted a flaw in the system.

''The process where you can hear (the third umpire) talking, that's nice and transparent. The thing it's opened up for us is when you hear the talk they don't know what they're looking for, and there's a solution which makes it absolutely perfect."

Cue closer communication. Having the third umpire working physically closer to the DRS operators is into rocket science.

As Taylor put it, players' careers can hang on a technology decision being applied correctly.