Technology used in tennis to determine whether or not a ball hits a line may soon be used in cricket to crack the problem of no-balls, the English Cricket Board (ECB) said on Monday.
The issue of no-balls has been in the spotlight after controversial umpiring decisions during England’s defeat to Pakistan in the second test last Monday. Television pictures showed that up to four England batsmen were given out to no-balls.
``Apparently the magic eye can tell us if a bowler is overstepping the line,‘’ said Alan Fordham, the ECB’s cricket operations manager.
He said the board had been approached by the manufacturers and that the offer would be taken seriously. ``We’ll give them a full opportunity,‘’ he said.
Fordham said the technology, known as Cyclops, would not be put in place for a while. ``A realistic time scale wouldn’t include this season, it takes a lot of thorough investigation and that does take time,‘’ he said.
But the inventor of the technology, 87-year-old Malta-based Bill Carlton, said the technology could be in place on cricket pitches in as little as six weeks.
More than detecting the "no-balls", it is important to have a technology in place to confirm LBWs . Far too many 50-50 LBW decisions are left to human judgement and there are just too many errors which often change the course of the game.
Its easy to see now how many mistakes would have been made on close run-out decisions before the THIRD UMPIRE(with TV assistance) came into the being. Somethings just cannot be judged by the human eye and so leaves CRICKET matches far too open to luck now.
I also feel that the third umpire should be taken help of whenever the field Umpire has any doubts (for all types of dismissals i.e.).
While the puritans will be shaking their heads and crying hoarse that the game will be rid of its beauty and the element of chance is what makes the game so interesting, I think the time has come for the pragmatic administrators to come forth and take charge.
Mistakes by the umpires had always been accepted as a part of the game. An umpire is a super-natural being. This is what he has to do. From the bowler’s run-up, to his jump, to check no-ball, to check follow-through, and in between to see where the ball pitched, where it is swinging or cutting, LBW, or a slight nick in the gloves of the wicket-keeper, a no-ball for a shoulder-height, a delicate catch just above the ground, a sharp runout on bowler back drive…the list goes on and on.
His life needs to be made just a little more comfortable. Run-outs are much less traumatic now with the third umpire and the replays. Fielders cheating on the boundries are just a bit more honest, sharp catches are a little better adjucated, the marvels of technology are here.
With the game so highly commercialized, a single wrong decision by an umpire can cost a budding player his career or a team a match and millions of dollars. Mistakes, which were previously shrugged off with a shake of the head are much more costly now.
How will the machine determine an LBW though. Are they trained for a googly?
Infact, I read somewhere that in South Africa they already have somekind of technology ready to determine LBWs. Though they are still experimenting with it.I dont see why “googlies” should be a problem. Its only the question of determining the direction of the ball and the path it would have taken after it hit the batsman’s pads.
Well, after hitting the pitch, the ball can spin either way. Sometimes the batsman is hit on the pads right after the ball has pitched in which case the ball could have gone either way. The difference between a normal spin ball and a googly is, ofcourse, that even though the ball is spinning the same way in the air, after pitching it will cut the opposite way. Or a flipper, which spins similarly in the air, but stays flat after hitting the pitch.
That was one reason why Abdul Qadir had so much trouble in England 1982, since the umpires had no idea how a googly is opposite to a normal spin ball. I wonder how the machine will understand all that.
I suppose it will have to be a mixture of umpires and technology. If technology can control a spacecraft on moon or mars millions of miles away, it can surely work out the trajectory of the ball. No harm in trying.
Pakistan recently lost a series in West Indies due to a clear bat, pad catch not been given by the umpire against Walsh.