Umpire's word is final..no more!!

Someone somewhere long ago said Nobody is Perfect and since then everyone everywhere is in search of that nobody! One such quest for perfection in cricket has been the driving force behind constant technical innovation. Though the intentions have been good, these things have always attracted attention in a negative way! More often than not the poor umpires are brought into spotlight when they are the only souls who remain on the field throughout the match and do their duty with hardly any incentives on offer. No doubt technology had to make inroads onto the cricket field sooner or later, but things were sometimes done without much thought and consequences were hence disastrous. Mahinda Wijesinghe, a former Sri Lankan cricketer, not mentioned too often, is the man who envisioned the role of the third umpire. The first victim of the TV replays was Sachin Tendulkar, run out by the great Jonthy Rhodes in a Test Match in 1992/93. That day would alter (reduce) the role of the on-field umpire completely and this technological empowerment was for the greater good of cricket!! There had been quite a few technical developments prior to TV umpire but this technology brought about a paradigm shift. Technology has also been able to redefine entertainment in sports, right from the giant screen to the ultra-slow motion, from the stump mike to the mike in the player’s ears, from the good old television to the online streaming. Things might have changed but the spirit is still the same, everyone still wants their team to do well and come out on the top and they don’t really care how this happens.

Let us look at few of the technologies and technical applications used in cricket today.

DRS: Decision Review System

This thing sent the phrase ‘Umpire’s word is final’ tossing outside the field.

Daryl Harper signalling a review!

DRS was introduced primarily for reviewing the ‘not-so-obvious’ decisions made by the on-field umpires, and used to check and recheck whether the batsman is out or not out. It was first used in a test match involving New Zealand and Pakistan. This pretty thing managed to create quite a furore and garnered publicity for all the wrong reasons during the recently concluded World Cup.

Whenever a batsman feels he was wrongly adjudged out or the fielding team feels the batsman is out, they can challenge the umpire’s decision by forming a ‘T’ with their arms. Each team is sanctioned to make two unsuccessful review requests per innings during a match. The TV umpire views the replays from multiple angles and then passes on his observations to the on-field umpire who then makes the final decision: either re-signaling a call that is standing or revoking a call that is being reversed and then making the corrected signal.

This technology is surely a thing for the future but needs a lot of fine-tuning and I personally believe the on-field umpires should not be blamed or judged using this technology and the bottom line is the on-field umpires are irreplaceable but technology could be used for their assistance and nothing more.

Hot Spot

Originally designed for the military to track its tanks and jet fighters and was first used during the Ashes series of 06/07. This one failed to be present in the real Hot Spot(World Cup) but is actually a very promising technology and is considered an important tool for the DRS. Two infrared cameras are placed on the either side of the field and then the pictures from these are used to determine whether the ball has struck the bat or not. It’s mainly used to catch light nicks and to uncomplicate the most complicated rule in the sport- LBW

This technology is also used by quite a few coaches to analyse the batsmen’s stroke play, you can see where exactly the ball made contact with the bat.

The Snickometer

This one has a nick and it is snicko, the removal of the ‘n’ would probably make it sound closer to reality.

Invented by a Computer Scientist from England, Allan Plaskett it was first used in 1999 by Channel 4 in the UK, before being used in India and Australia. It has long been a commentators’ toy and they often use it as an opportunity to pick on the deprived umpire who only has his naked eye and experience to fall back on!

It is primarily used to determine if the cricket ball touched the cricket bat on the way through to the wicketkeeper. The TV replays help us listen to and view the shape of the recorded soundwave. This technology has been heavily criticised and will soon be completely replaced the hot-spot!

Hawk Eye at work!

Hawk-Eye

It uses multiple cameras to create 3D representation of ball path and predict the flight and path of the ball. It is also used in sports like Tennis and Snookers. Hawk-Eye systems use the visual images and timing data provided by various high-speed video cameras located at different locations and angles around the area of play. A sequence of frames then help put together the predicted flight path of the ball. These images are used to judge if the batsman could be adjudged LBW out or not. Hawk Eye is the supporting technology behind DRS as of now.

There is also a backend database system available and this is what helps us know what %age of balls bowled by Malinga were toe crushing Yorkers and the number of times Sreesanth erred in his line and length!!

Miscellaneous:

There also are elaborate technologies for pitch/field protection and drying. Due to huge money on offer, we have several competing companies trying to outdo each other and the result is improving technology. The days of a helicopter being called upon to dry the pitch only remain in the memories.

The stump mike has created more problems than it has solved. Players, especially wicketkeepers sledge unmindful of their ‘not so pleasant’ words being recorded. These are some of the examples http://bit.ly/kN6C1y

Speed gun is one more technological innovation which has techno characteristics for sure but is not so much logical.

The technology uses radar gun to determine the speed of a cricket ball. It is similar to the technology used to catch and penalise speeding drivers! This again has been able to capture viewer’s attention and some bowlers have infact openly stated their wish to break the 100mph barrier!

This list is anything but exhaustive, as long as there is viewership demand, there will be technological innovations, some path breaking, some useful and some illogical. The day might not be far when we would be able to guess what shot the batsmen is going to attempt next.

Finally, technology should be used to empower the umpire and not replace him, for the only things which never lie are Eyes.