Snickometer (or “Snicko”), UltraEdge and Hotspot are technologies used in review systems to detect if a ball has hit the bat. This helps determine if the batter was eligible to be caught or dismissed by LBW.
Usually, an umpire can choose to use the technology before making a decision if they are uncertain about a potential catch. With LBW (where the ball hitting the bat before the leg would rule out LBW), the umpire will give their decision on the field after an appeal and the technology is only used if a player calls for a review of that decision.
The technologies work in slightly different ways. HotSpot uses infrared cameras which look for heat signals to spot if a ball has hit the bat. Critics say the system is too expensive and results can be distorted if a bat has tape on it.
Both Snickometer and UltraEdge use microphones to produce a sound level chart that accompanies video footage. The idea is that a reviewer (the “TV umpire”) can look at the footage frame by frame and see if the sound level spikes when the ball is close to the bat.
UltraEdge is more expensive to use, partly because it captures many more frames per second, which theoretically makes it more reliably in connecting the sound spike to the video footage. It also uses ball tracking technology (which is part of manufacturer Hawkeye’s wider system for LBW reviews) so there’s less reliance on human judgment about the position of the ball when the sound spikes.
Unlike with ball-tracking technology for LBW dismissals, there’s no margin of error allowance for technologies that track if the ball hit the bat: the verdict it simply that it hit the bat or did not. This means there is no “umpire’s call” for catches or for whether the ball hit the bat or leg first with LBW.
One of the big controversies about such technologies is that they are not used consistently. ICC tournaments such as World Cups will have set rules about technologies. The same does not apply to Test matches (even though they are technically part of the ICC World Test Championship). Instead, it’s up to the host nation to decide and in some cases it’s even left to TV broadcasters to choose and pay for the technology as part of their deal to show the games.
In some cases the way technology is used can be more of a problem than the technology itself. In the 2025-26 Ashes test, a controversial decision of Not Out using the Snickometer system (despite even the batter believing he had hit the ball) turned out to be human error. The operators had used the sound signal from the microphone at the wrong end of the pitch, meaning it was out of sync with the video footage.