No-ball tech issues as Warner reprieved

A failure in technology has resulted in a farcical no-ball situation during day two of the first Vodafone Ashes Test at the Gabba.

The controversy came to light when Ben Stokes bowled David Warner with a beautiful delivery midway through the morning session.

Warner was rightly spared when the third umpire found the delivery to have been illegal with the England allrounder overstepping.

A short time later, Channel Seven highlighted that Stokes had also over-stepped in each of his previous three previous deliveries, though none had been called as no-balls.

Later, they showed Stokes had in fact bowled 14 no-balls, with only two – including the wicket ball – called.

For the Pakistan versus England Test series in August last year, the ICC announced that for the first time the third umpire would be monitoring the bowler's front foot every delivery.

However, the technology used for that process is currently unavailable for this Test match due to technical problems, and as such, the responsibility to check front-foot no-balls has fallen back to the on-field umpire.

Officials are hopeful the no-ball technology will be available again as soon as possible.

In the meantime at the fall of a wicket, the standing umpire can then ask the third umpire to check the legality of the front foot.

"The background to this (is) a few years ago when England were playing in Sri Lanka, there were a number of no-balls that were supposedly being missed," former ICC umpire Simon Taufel told Seven.

"So they wanted to make sure every illegal ball from a front-foot perspective was being checked and called, and runs rewarded. Batsmen were protected."

While Australia can feel aggrieved by the officiating oversights costing them extra runs, there is a clear flipside; had Stokes been no-balled the first time he over-stepped, he might have corrected his run-up and, by the fourth delivery of his spell – the wicket-taking delivery – he could well have been bowling from behind the line.

"The bowler Ben Stokes needs to know to be able to fix this… that's the first issue," said former Test paceman Trent Copeland. "But then after that, how many of these are going to go by?

"No runs have been awarded for these, but also if there's wickets that fall later in the Test, what is that going to mean not just for this Test but the series in general?"

It is not the first time the Gabba has been the scene of such a controversy.

Two summers ago when Pakistan took on Australia – before the new ICC rule was introduced – the visitors' bowlers over-stepped 21 times during the first two sessions of day two, with just one no-ball being called.

Vodafone Men's Ashes

Squads

Australia: Pat Cummins (c), Steve Smith (vc), Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Marcus Harris, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Michael Neser, Jhye Richardson, Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, David Warner

England: Joe Root (c), James Anderson, Jonathan Bairstow, Dom Bess, Stuart Broad, Rory Burns, Jos Buttler, Zak Crawley, Haseeb Hameed, Dan Lawrence, Jack Leach, Dawid Malan, Craig Overton, Ollie Pope, Ollie Robinson, Ben Stokes, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood

Schedule

First Test: December 8-12, The Gabba

Second Test: December 16-20, Adelaide Oval

Third Test: December 26-30, MCG

Fourth Test: January 5-9, SCG

Fifth Test: January 14-18, TBC