Hot Spot was not universally banned or formally discontinued by the ICC. It became less common because some broadcasters chose not to deploy it, with cost and concerns about missed faint edges cited in the best-documented case: Channel Nine dropping it for Australia’s 2013–14 Ashes coverage.
What Hot Spot showed during a cricket review
Hot Spot used infrared cameras to detect heat where the ball contacted the bat or another surface. During a review, its thermal image could help the television official judge whether the ball had touched the bat. It supplied one kind of evidence rather than an automatic verdict: the ICC described it as giving the official more information to consider. ICC playing conditions
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The ICC categorizes heat-based edge detection separately from sound-based systems such as Real-Time Snickometer and UltraEdge. Their signals are different—a thermal image in one case, a sound signal in the other—so listing both does not make them interchangeable or establish that one is more accurate in every situation.
Why did Hot Spot become less common?
Cost weighed on broadcaster decisions
Reports tied Hot Spot’s expense to the decision to drop it, but the figures published at the time use different currencies and units. BBC Sport’s 2025 article reports a historical cost of approximately £6,000 per day. ABC News Australia reported in 2013 that the cost was believed to be a major reason for Channel Nine’s decision, citing $10,000 per Test-match day; the same report gave an estimate of about $250,000 per Test series. These are attributed historical figures, not current prices or directly comparable quotations. BBC Sport · ABC News Australia
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Faint edges raised reliability concerns
BBC Sport says Hot Spot faced scrutiny during the 2013 Ashes after several faint edges appeared not to register. Contemporaneous Australian reporting also connected reliability concerns with Channel Nine’s decision. Those reports document concerns, not a measured error rate and not proof that Hot Spot failed on every edge.
The widely cited withdrawal was a broadcaster choice
Channel Nine dropped Hot Spot from its coverage of the 2013–14 Ashes in Australia. That is the specific withdrawal most often cited; it does not show that the ICC prohibited the technology or that every broadcaster stopped using it. ABC News Australia
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Was Hot Spot replaced by UltraEdge or Snickometer?
Sound-based edge-detection systems are a separate technology category recognized in ICC playing conditions, so alternatives were available to broadcasters and officials. But the evidence does not establish that one particular alternative alone caused Hot Spot’s decline, that it replaced Hot Spot everywhere, or that the systems have been compared in a controlled, current test of accuracy and price. Which tools are available depends on the match’s deployment.
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Is Hot Spot still allowed by the ICC?
The ICC playing-conditions document cited here still lists heat-based edge detection as an approved technology. Approval is not the same as routine use: a broadcaster must deploy the equipment for a series, and the cited rules also set standards for other technologies. The rules allow removal if usage or testing indicates a system cannot provide accurate and timely information; the match referee makes the final decision in consultation with the ICC technical official, management and the competing teams’ governing bodies. ICC playing conditions
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Earlier, in 2012, the ICC said developers had invested in improved cameras and that host broadcasters reported clearer and more accurate results during the England–West Indies series. That history is a reason not to treat the later criticism as proof of universal or permanent technical failure. ICC statement on the England–West Indies series
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Why isn’t Hot Spot used in every country or series?
There is no single country-wide answer established by the cited evidence. Availability is specific to a match or series and the broadcaster’s deployment choices. If a viewer asks why Hot Spot was absent from a particular match—including one in India—the documented explanation is not an ICC-wide ban: costs and reported reliability concerns have influenced broadcaster choices, but the sources here do not establish the reason for every individual series.
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