Real-time snicko to be used as new DRS tool in winter Ashes

Sydney: The real-time snickometer, which is the new update in the much-maligned Decision Review System (DRS), is reportedly set to be added to the technology available to the umpires during the winter Ashes series.

The series` broadcaster Channel Nine finally struck a new in-principle deal with BBG Sports, the company behind both Hot Spot and the real-time Snicko, to use its products from Thursday`s first Test between Australia and England at the Gabba . According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the agreement clears the way for the ICC to introduce the new tool in the DRS, with Nine being told by the ICC that umpires will be using it, along with Hot Spot and the Eagle Eye ball-tracking and stump microphones, to determine whether or not batsmen are out. Confirming the availability of the Snicko, Nine`s executive producer of cricket Brad McNamara said that both Cricket Australia ( CA) chief executive James Sutherland and his England and Wales Cricket Board ( ECB) counterpart David Collier have agreed to have the Snicko in the winter Ashes. The report mentioned that the ICC has agreed that the Ashes series will be a trial for the new technology before it decides to introduce it for all Tests, although it is unclear how much training the umpires appointed for the Ashes have done in using the new device. The third umpire for the first Test is South Africa`s Marais Erasmus, the report added.