Hawk-Eye CEO suggests ICC to develop independent software

New Delhi: Developing an independent software funded by the ICC could help in evaluating the accuracy of the two competing ball-tracking technologies - Hawk-Eye and Virtual Eye - according to Paul Hawkins, the former`s chief executive.

Hawk-Eye was used for the 2011 World Cup among other series, and Virtual Eye was used during the 2010-11 Ashes. An independent software may not be as accurate as the two systems currently in use, it would still be good enough to point out glaring errors committed by either technology provider, Hawkins believed. "What we have proposed to the ICC, which I feel will be hugely beneficial to everyone involved, including ourselves, is a software solution which the ICC could use to independently monitor both systems, ourselves and Virtual Eye," Hawkins said. Explaining further he said, "So any lbw decision used for DRS, or not for DRS, that anyone has concern with, be it the board, players or the umpires, then the ICC can look into it in the same way that they evaluate the human umpires. It`ll be very easy for them to have a software that will give them independent answers for pitch point, interception point, prediction of whether the ball will go on to hit the stumps." "It certainly won`t be as accurate as our system but will be accurate enough to highlight if either system had made a glaring error, of over two centimetres for example," he was quoted as saying by a website. Hawkins also suggested penalties be imposed on the two providers if they were found to be consistently inaccurate. PTI