Alex Carey Breaks Silence After Snicko Controversy In Ashes Sees Him Gets Called A 'Cheater'

Alex Carey steered Australia to a dominant position on Day 1 of the third Ashes Test at Adelaide Oval on Wednesday. After a shaky start, which saw Australia slump to 94/4 soon after lunch, Carey, along with the last-minute inclusion of Usman Khawaja, added 91 runs for the fifth wicket to rescue Australia. Carey scored 106 off 143 balls. The South Australian, whose father Gordon died in September after a protracted battle with cancer, looked up to the sky after notching his third Test century. (India vs South Africa 4th T20I Live Updates)

This achievement was significant for Carey, who looked skyward in tribute to his late father, who passed away in September from leukaemia. The 34-year-old also became Australia's leading run-scorer in Tests this year, surpassing Steve Smith's 618 runs to rank sixth in the world for runs in the format.

However, the century didn't come without controversy. Carey survived an early chance in the innings when he flashed at the first ball of the 63rd over from Josh Tongue. Wicketkeeper Jamie Smith and a fielder appealed and celebrated for a catch behind, but standing umpire Ahsan Raza turned it down as England reviewed the decision almost immediately.

There was a spike shown on the snickometer, but it appeared two to three frames before the ball passed the bat. Chris Gaffaney, the TV umpire, said the spike was "before the bat" and that the ball appeared to have "gone well under" the bat: "There's a clear gap, no spike."

"I thought there was a bit of a feather or some sort of noise when it passed the bat. It looked a bit funny on the replay, didn't it, with the noise coming early? If I were given out, I think I would have reviewed it - probably not confidently, though. It was a nice sound as it passed the bat, yeah.

"Snicko obviously didn't line up, did it? That's just the way cricket goes sometimes, isn't it? You have a bit of luck, and maybe it went my way today," said Carey.

A Day Without Cheating is A Day Wasted for Australia. There was no way this wasn't out. It's 100 percent out. Australia uses low quality Ultraedge to do cheating. Once A Cheater, Forever A Cheater. Alex Carey should have walked off. Clear Cheating pic.twitter.com/2w8cjME4RS

— Aryan Goel (@Aryan42832Goel) December 17, 2025

England's bowling coach, David Saker, was disappointed with the use of technology on the tour and said the dressing room remains unhappy with the incident.

"The boys were pretty confident he hit it," Saker said at the close of play. "I think the calibration of the Snicko is out quite a bit, and that has probably been the case for the series. There have been some things that don't really measure up.

"At that stage, it was a pretty important decision. Those things hurt, but you get through them. In this day and age, you'd think the technology is good enough to pick things up like that."

Topics mentioned in this article

England Cricket Team Australia Cricket Team Alex Carey Australia vs England, Ashes 2025-26 Cricket