Cricket World Cup 2015 is in progress and every one seems to be coloured in colour of cricket in India, a nation where cricket is not just a game its religion, its heart beat, its the blood running in veins for many. This is 11th world cup in progress , the first one was played in 1975 as prudential world cup in 1975 hosted by England. From 1975 to 2015 forty years have passed and we have seen a lot of changes in the format of the sport, equipments, technical and technological. Like other sports cricket regulatory bodies are utilizing best available technology to improve the quality and accuracy of the game. However, use of new technology brings split opinion in general from the experts, and cricket is no exception to this. We will see how cricket world cup has changed over the years in terms of technology and if that proved to be boon or bane?
Super Slow motion:
Super slow motion technology works on a high speed camera which captures the action live and then play it back at ultra slow speed helping third umpire analyse the incident from various angles and gives clear picture if the ball made contact with pad, bat or making easier to give a run out decision.
Stump Mics:
Little did we knew, from where that tuck sound came off when ball striked on stumps while watching cricket as a child. Its the mic fitted near stumps to capture any sound near wicket to provide an extra bit of information which can help in making decision if ball made contact with bat or gloves or pad.
Stump Camera:
This is a small camera hidden inside the wickets on both sides. This gives additional angle and view to viewers, its footage is sometimes used in making runout decision in some circumstances.
Speed Gun:
This is a small doppler radar unit which is used to determine speed of moving objects. This technology is used in measuring bowling speed of a bowler. Sometimes it is also used to calculate balls speed after being hit by the batsman.
On Screen Graphics:
A lot can be written on this part, do you remember how scores were displayed on Doordarshan in 90's it was on top right corner of the TV and during match time DD logo was shifted to top left corner. Now you can see scores on bottom of screen, it displays number of balls bowled in over with runs scored on each delivery, it shows different statistical data and in meantime your screen shrinks from right and bottom to accommodate advertisement.
Electric Score Boards:
On field score boards have changed a lot since its inception. From manual boards of alphabets and numbers to Electronic score boards with colourful led lights and customized messages. Now on field score boards are huge displays and celebrates each milestone in its own way.
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| South Africa chased 434 against Australia |
Snickometer:
Snickometer or snicko as used in common terms was invented by English computer scientist Allan Plaskett in mid 90's. This technology used sound variations graphically to determine if ball made contact with bat or any other part of the body. This is generally used along with slow motion where in both these technology synchronized gives a good understanding of the sound variation against that of visual display to determine the contact behaviour of the ball on the way to wicketkeeper.
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| Snickometer |
Hot Spot
Hot spot is an infra-red imaging used to determine whether the ball has struck the bat , pad or any other surface. In case of any doubt infra red image can be verified as any contact by the ball will be displayed as bright spot due to increase in local temperature at time of contact thus the name Hot Spot. This technology is highly efficient but at the same time very costly. Nevertheless in 2011 India's Rahul Dravid was given out even when hot spot gave inconclusive results.
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| HotSpot - Bright spot refers to area where ball contacted the bat |
Hawk Eye
Hawk Eye is used in many sports , it is a very complex computer system which is used to track the trajectory of the ball and displays a record of its statistically most likely path as moving image. This is mainly used in determining LBW decisions when challenged by batsman in DRS system. It is also used to collect statistical data about bowlers length record, strong point , weak point etc.
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| Hawk Eye |
UDRS:
Umpire Decision review system was introduced in August 2008 by ICC, where in Fielding Captain or Batsman dismissed can challenge on field umpire decision unlimited time successfully but limited to only 2 times in case on field umpire decision stays. In review third umpire basically uses any or few of the above technology to validate on field umpire's decision. Most prominently Hawk eye, snickometer, hotspot and slomotion techniques are used in arriving at conclusion.
Boom or Bane?
Now coming to the conclusion part of the post, whether these technologies are boom or bane for cricket? It is true that no system is perfect but we can always work towards achieving highest accuracy. In my opinion all the above technologies have proven a boom for cricket for most of the time as it has many a time reversed on field umpire's decision with validating incidents from all angles which are not otherwise possible due to human limitation. As said earlier their are cases of disputes even when these hitech technology was in use, but the fact is we are moving closer to perfection. Many dismissals have been called invalid, many LBW decisions are made right. It provides a standard and unbiased decision which increase confidence of the people involved and that's the very same reason why it is in place when we are witnessing 2015 cricket world cup.
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