Australia fast bowler Mitchell Starc has questioned why the ICC doesn't pay for the DRS technology in international cricket and believes they should use one provider across all matches to avoid the inconsistencies in decision-making that have been evident in the Ashes series.
Both Australia and England have expressed frustration at several decisions across the series involving Real Time Snicko (RTS) with tensions boiling over during the Adelaide Test.
England had a review reinstated by match referee Jeff Crowe on the second morning after BBG Sports, the suppliers of Snicko, conceded operator error had led to an incorrect reprieve for Alex Carey during his opening-day century.
Another incident occurred on day two that led to Starc being overheard on the stump mic saying "Snicko needs to be sacked" .
The ECB and CA plan to lobby the ICC to review its protocols and systems as a result of the error with the issue of the host broadcasters having to pay for the technology set to be a key a discussion point. Starc believes the process needs to be centralised.
"I'm sure it's frustrating for everyone, viewers, officials, broadcasters no doubt," Starc said. "One thing I will say ... I'm only going to speak for myself here, the officials use it, right? So why doesn't the ICC pay for it? And why is it not just one [provider] across the board? Why don't we use the same technology in all different series that's going to perhaps create less confusion, less frustration? So that's where I'll leave that."
The ICC has two approved "sound-based edge detection technology" suppliers: RTS, which is used in Australia, and UltraEdge, which is used in the rest of the world. Ricky Ponting, the former Australia captain, said during the third Test that umpires "can't trust" RTS and suggested that UltraEdge is superior.
Australia captain Pat Cummins was diplomatic, but did note RTS seemed to be different to UltraEdge.
"The one here seems a little bit different to sometimes what you get overseas," Cummins said. "There's always a few murmurs. You're hoping that it matches up if you're the bowling team. Sometimes you kind of just making sure that it's all okay if you're batting, even though you feel like you haven't hit it. It sometimes doesn't feel super consistent, but you just crack on whatever the umpire says."
Although UltraEdge is used in the BBL, there is no provision to change technology providers mid-series, with RTS set to be used for the final two Tests in Melbourne and Sydney.