The company behind Hot Spot will
undertake tests to see whether
the cameras can be tricked by
the use of artificial substances
on the edge of the bat. There is
a belief among players that Vaseline can reduce the chances
of a thin nick showing up,
although it has only ever been
rumoured that such tactics are
used. Concerns about the
effectiveness of Hot Spot came
to the fore when VVS Laxman
survived a caught-behind appeal
on the second day at Trent
Bridge. England were convinced there was an edge but Laxman
was equally convinced he hadn't
hit it. The third umpire said
there was a noise but it wasn't
clear from where. Michael
Vaughan, the former England captain, sparked controversy by
tweeting the suggestion of
Vaseline and Stuart Broad was
later asked and admitted
checking the edge of Laxman's
bat but finding nothing. Warren Brennan, the owner of
Hot Spot, has previously said the
device's accuracy is around
90-95% and can be impacted by
such things as bright sunshine
and the speed of the bat in the shot. He now says that it is
possible that a substance like
Vaseline could reduce the
technology's effectiveness and
tests will be conducted to try to
find conclusive results. "I would imagine that Vaseline
would restrict the friction of the
ball hitting the bat so if you
reduce the friction you are going
to reduce the Hot Spot,"
Brennan told cricket "That is pure and simple physics. From
what I can remember, quite
often the outside of the bat has
a layer of some sort of coating. "Now if you put extra layers on
the bat that might do the same
thing. As long as it is a harder
type of surface then you will get
the Hot Spot. But if it is a soft,
absorbant type of material then that will probably reduce the
friction. It might take us a week
or even longer to test all
possibilities." The other theory is that bat
stickers on the edge of a blade
can also help reduce the chances
of a Hot Spot showing up - by
showing one, long heat signature
down the side of the bat - but Brennan said it is likely to work
the opposite way and actually
increase the visibility of individual
marks. "What I noticed last week when I
was at Lord's was these stickers
down the side of certain players'
bats," he said. "When I looked at
it through the cameras it
actually looked like a Hot Spot, four or five little white spots.
That was quite unusual so it
must have be some sort of logo
or the sticker. Through the
infra-red I could see those spots. "I just don't know why a
manufacturer would put it on
the side of the bat that would
make it look like a Hot Spot. I
had this conversation with the
ICC less than a month ago and told them that we are noticing
some of these stickers tend to
reflect heat a bit like a mirror.
The ICC said if that is the case
they might have to look
changing the regulations so that the side of the bat does not
have any advertising, no stickers
and no logos. But that is still a
work in progress." There have been a number of
occasions when Hot Spot has
proved inconclusive in caught-
behind decisions. During the
Ashes Kevin Pietersen survived
at Melbourne, which incensed Ricky Ponting, while at Sydney
Ian Bell survived an appeal which
Snicko - which isn't used with
the DRS - later suggested was
out. Hot Spot has been made a
mandatory piece of technology
for the DRS system following the
ICC's meetings in Hong Kong last
month, where it was also decided
to make Hawk-Eye optional. The infra-red cameras have shown
themselves to be especially
effective at proving bat-pad
catches and whether a batsman
has been hit pad first in an lbw
appeal, although in this series DRS is not being used for any
leg-before decision
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