Comments no offence to umpires: Taylor

Ian Taylor
Ian Taylor
Animation Research chief executive Ian Taylor has apologised "unreservedly'' for any confusion caused by his criticism of cricket's decision review system, saying his comments were not aimed at individual umpires.

Mr Taylor hit back at criticism of his ball-tracker technology on Sunday, after it twice appeared to fail during the test between New Zealand and Sri Lanka at the University Oval.

• Skippers dodge issues over DRS  

He said there were no glitches in his company's technology and laid the blame with the current structure of the DRS, which made it difficult for umpires to use.

On one occasion, there was a problem with the third umpire's monitor and, on the other, the third umpire did not have access to footage Mr Taylor's team did, he said.

Mr Taylor spoke to International Cricket Council general manager of cricket Geoff Allardice to clarify his comments.

"I said to Geoff, ‘I am happy to apologise to you - I didn't mean to offend the umpires in any way, shape or form','' he said.

He had been told the ICC would be conducting a review at the end of the season of the way the DRS operates.

ICC head of media and communications Sami Ul Hasan said it would not be practical for third umpires to communicate with those running Hot Spot, Snicko and ball-tracking, as Mr Taylor suggested.

He also rejected the idea technology developers could sit in the same room as third umpires to assist in making decisions.

Engineers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston would be conducting independent testing for the ICC as part of a review into DRS technologies in the middle of next year, Mr Ul Hasan said.

Mr Taylor again defended the technology last night after ball tracking showed a delivery from New Zealand bowler Neil Wagner yesterday to be missing the wickets when it appeared to be hitting.

However, Mr Taylor said the spot the ball appeared to hit the pad was a black circular patch, created by a logo or something similar on the pad.

Two unobstructed cameras available only to Mr Taylor's team showed the position of the actual ball and he was confident the ball path was correct.

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