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Vaseline, side tapes can confuse Hot Spot
VVS Laxman's suspected nick late on the first day that wasn't detected by the Hot Spot technology created quite a fuss. Amol Karhadkar spoke to Warren Brennan, the inventor and owner of the Hot Spot technology, about the incident and the accuracy of the technology. Vaseline gate
VVS Laxman's suspected nick late on the first day that wasn't detected by the Hot Spot technology created quite a fuss. HT spoke to Warren Brennan, the inventor and owner of the Hot Spot technology, about the incident and the accuracy of the technology.
Some of the players' say they aren't satisfied with the Hot Spot. Your take…
Look, I have always said that it's not 100% accurate. Over the years we have found that occasionally, we don't get hot spots when we are expecting them, particularly on the faint edges. From what I gather, Laxman has made comments categorically saying that he just didn't hit it. At the same time, I don't know how to explain the noise that was heard. It's difficult to say but we have seen that before - once in the SL-England series earlier this season and on 2-3 occasions during the Ashes.
What needs to be done to make Hot Spot 100% correct?
We are trying to improve the system. One of the biggest problems we have is when the bat is swung quickly. We get 'motion blur' where the bat is bleary as it is swinging. In those instances, it's difficult to pick up a hot spot. Whereas, if a player is playing a forward defensive shot and the bat doesn't move much, we can pick hot spot in just about all the cases. We are trying to improve that by using different cameras, different techniques. We think we have solved that but the new cameras won't be available for a few more months.
Is it true that if a batsman applies Vaseline on the edge of bat, it could help in an edge not getting detected as a hot spot?
That could be possible. Anything you can apply to the bat would reduce the friction (between the bat and the ball) and that can hinder the detection of hot spot. This is not something that we have tested yet, but we will attempt to test it this week.
So, even a tape on the edge of the bat can be a deterrent?
That's correct. I saw this last week during the Lord's Test.
There were some stickers or logos or some plastic material on the side of Dravid's and even Ishant's bats. When I looked at that through the infrared camera, it came up like a hot spot.
