NOTTINGHAM, England, (Reuters) – The inventor of “Hot Spot” technology apologised to England yesterday over an error which caused the dismissal of Jonathan Trott during the first Ashes test against Australia.
Trott was given not out when struck on the pad by a ball from Mitchell Starc on the second day, but the Australians referred the decision to the third umpire and it was overruled.
Trott was certain the ball had hit his bat before striking his pad but the replays showed there was no contact.
“Here is the absolute truth from our perspective in regard to the Trott incident,” Hot Spot inventor Warren Brennan told Cricinfo.
“It was operator error. My operator did not trigger the system in order to cater for the Trott delivery.”
Brennan said the operator was still looking at the dismissal of Joe Root off Starc’s previous delivery.
“Instead the operator sat on the Root delivery in order to offer a replay from the previous ball and did not realise until it was too late that he should have triggered the system for the Trott delivery as the priority,” Brennan said.
“Simple mistake, something that anyone could have made but my Hot Spot operator has worked on the system since 2007 and to my knowledge this is the first serious mistake he has made.”
England coach Andy Flower sought clarification from the International Cricket Council’s match referee and British newspapers reported that ICC chief executive Dave Richardson had apologised to England Cricket Board chairman Giles Clarke.
