Jamie Smith started to walk off when he saw a murmur on graphic on the big screen, but stopped after the footage was slowed down, showing the spike appearing after the ball had passed the bat
ESPNcricinfo staff22-Nov-2025
Jamie Smith and his partner Gus Atkinson wait for the third umpire’s decision•AFP/Getty Images
Simon Taufel, the former international umpire, has defended the decision to give England’s Jamie Smith out caught behind on review on the second day of the first Ashes Test in Perth.Smith, on 15, was cramped for room looking to pull a back-of-a-length ball from Brendan Doggett and was given not out by standing umpire Nitin Menon. Australia captain Steven Smith reviewed the decision on the insistence of Travis Head (fielding at short leg) and Alex Carey (wicketkeeper), and it was ultimately overturned by TV umpire Sharfuddoula after a long delay.Smith, England’s wicketkeeper, started to walk off the field when he saw a murmur on the Real Time Snickometer (RTS) graphic on the big screen at Perth Stadium, but stopped after the footage was slowed down, with the small spike appearing one frame after the ball had passed the bat.
But after four minutes of consideration, Sharfuddoula overturned the decision. “[There is a] spike as the ball has just gone past the bat,” he said. “[I am] satisfied the ball has made contact with the bat. My decision… Nitin, you need to change your decision from not out to out. There’s a clear spike as the ball had just passed [the bat].”The thousands of England supporters at the ground booed the decision and sang, “Same old Aussies, always cheating.” But Taufel, speaking on Channel 7’s coverage, said the right decision had been reached, citing the difference between “edge-detection technologies” used in Australia and elsewhere.”This is the difficulty when we have two types of edge-detection technologies around the world,” Taufel said. “Primarily, we use Hawkeye Ultra-Edge. In Australia, it’s one of the few countries in the world to use Real-Time Snicko.”It’s very difficult to come into a series with limited experience around how to judge RTS, but the conclusive evidence protocols with RTS [are that] if you get a spike up to one frame past the bat, that is conclusive. And in this particular case, that is exactly what was there.”Unfortunately, he [Sharfuddoula] didn’t want to pull the trigger quite as quickly as perhaps he could have or should have. And the guys in the truck were doing their utmost to show him and to slow it down and to try rocking and rolling that frame. For me, the correct decision was made: a spike [on] RTS after one frame past the bat, the batter has got to go.”The decision was reminiscent of several similar controversies during last year’s Border-Gavaskar Trophy between Australia and India.Mark Waugh, the former Australia batter, suggested on Kayo Sports’ coverage that Smith’s initial walk towards the dressing room might have influenced the decision to give him out.”I think Smith gave it away there,” he said. “I don’t think the umpire would have been convinced that he’d hit that if he’d stayed there. You’ve got to think if that takes that long to make a decision that there’s got to be some doubt there. But when Smith walked off, I think that’s what convinced the umpire. I think that’s the longest DRS decision I think I’ve seen.”
