Hawk-Eye founder Paul Hawkins hits back at Michael Vaughan's DRS comments

Hawk-Eye founder Paul Hawkins lambasted former England captain Michael Vaughan for his erroneous statements regarding the Decision Review System (DRS) amidst controversies during the ongoing Test series between India and England. Joe Root's dismissal in the fourth Test led to heated debates surrounding the DRS. Root was given out LBW despite on-field umpire Kumar Dharmasena appearing hesitant in response to India's appeal, hinting that the ball may have pitched outside the leg stump. However, upon review, ball-tracking technology showed the ball pitching just in line, prompting the umpire to overturn his initial decision.
 
This sparked discussions regarding the transparency of the DRS, particularly triggered by Zak Crawley's dismissal as he was dismissed by marginal calls twice. England captain Ben Stokes advocated for the elimination of the umpire's call, while Vaughan emphasised the need for greater transparency, proposing the installation of cameras on DRS operators.

“I’m not saying anyone is cheating. I’m trying to give an answer for when a decision is made and we all disagree with it. If the person on Hawk-Eye is filmed it puts the noise to bed. The most important operators of decisions now are in the trucks. We need to have a camera in the truck to give an understanding of how it all comes to that decision. All I want is full transparency," Vaughan was quoted as saying by Wisden. 

Also read: 'He's the new Ravi Ashwin, and we've unearthed him' - Michael Vaughan effusive in praise of Shoaib Bashir after Ranchi exploits

While speaking about Vaughan's proposals, Hawkins provided a comprehensive explanation of the operations of DRS' operators and the number of individuals involved in generating graphics post-review and how they work. Additionally, he clarified that cameras are positioned within the vans for quality control purposes.

“So, there’s three people typically on the Hawk-Eye tracking side of the system and then another person who does the UltraEdge in typical production. So, one person’s doing the virtual reality – the output side of things – and there’s two independent people that do the tracking, so there’s no single point of failure. The cameras come into the two independent tracking systems, there’s two sets of readers, two separate operators. And so every single ball – you’ve got essentially two watches and you’re checking that they’re always the same and you’ve got that quality control between the two systems," Hawkins said while speaking on The Analyst podcast.

Also read: Hawk-Eye founder Paul Hawkins defends DRS decision for Joe Root's dismissal in Ranchi Test

Following the clarification regarding the cameras in the DRS vans, Hawkins expressed disappointment at Vaughan's suggestion, noting that it's regrettable to hear such remarks from someone of his stature. He emphasised that Vaughan, in his role as a media person, holds a responsibility to ensure factual accuracy in his statements.

“The commentary, I think, is a little bit uneducated. It is unfortunate from Vaughan, because, obviously fantastic player, really enjoyed watching him play, and a great commentator, very entertaining. But I think it’s a responsibility to the game, in terms of journalism. Perhaps a little bit more preparation in terms of his role as a journalist may help him explain what’s happening to the huge fan base of cricket so that what he writes is factually correct. In the same way as Hawk-Eye has an obligation to be factually correct, perhaps journalists do too," he further said.