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| Saturday, 31 July 2004 |
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Cricket and technology Cricket will be more than just a game in England with the amount of technology innovations that are lined up to be put into experiment during the ICC Champions trophy tournament in September. Similar experiments took place during the last Champions trophy tournament held in Sri Lanka two years ago where umpires could refer lbw decisions to the television or third umpire and to confirm whether a catch had carried. But it became impracticable because of the frequent requests for arbitration, which slowed the game down and the ICC had to abandon the idea. How successful the new technological innovations the ICC hope to experiment with during the upcoming tournament will be, only time will tell. From Sri Lanka's point the research on slow bowlers will be followed with great interest because it concerns the future of world record holder for the most number of Test wickets Muttiah Muralitharan. No bowler in the history of the game has been subjected to such intense scrutiny than Muralitharan. This is another hurdle he is expected to clear to prove his honesty that he does not 'chuck'. Already the process of filming slow bowlers during matches has begun with the on-going second Test between England and the West Indies at Edgbaston. It will continue throughout the ICC Champions trophy covering slow bowlers of all participating teams. The ICC are using high-speed cameras positioned behind the bowler's arm and square of the wicket to film actions at 250 frames a second, which is five times faster than standard television cameras. The footage from both cameras will then be combined and coverted by a software program to create a three-dimensional image of the action together with the ability to analyse it in every detail. "This will provide us with a new generation of information that can be used in considering levels of tolerance for the accepted amount of extension at the elbow, either in terms of straightening or hyper-extension of the arm," said ICC General Manager - Cricket David Richardson. Richardson one of the few people who was supportive of raising the levels of tolerance for slow bowlers, but his suggestion were put under the carpet by the ICC. The present levels as it stands are 5 degrees for slow bowlers, 7.5 for medium pacers and 10 for fast bowlers. Dr Paul Hurrion, a leading human movement specialist has been assigned by the ICC to carry out the filming program and provide interpretation of the data. "Once Dr Hurrion's data has been processed and analysed following the completion of the ICC Champions Trophy, it will be used by the ICC and its specialist advisors to consider if the current levels of tolerance for slow bowlers need to be reviewed based on this new information," said Richardson. The other technological research that will be carried out by the ICC is to see if they help umpires improve the quality and consistency of decision-making. The Champions trophy will see standing umpires wired-up to TV stump microphone technology and third umpires calling no-balls. Umpires will wear an earpiece that picks up the audio from the stump microphone as the ball passes the batsman. The trial will indicate whether the microphone's position close to the action area will provide audible assistance to umpires in cases such as thin nicks to the keeper or bat pad fielders. An experiment on it carried out in first-class matches in South Africa early this year suggests that the devices were beneficial to umpires. Standing umpires will also be relieved of the need to watch for, or call no balls during the tournament. This will see the responsibility for calling no-balls pass to the third, or TV umpire. He will use the two-way link provided by the earpiece to advise standing umpires of any deliveries ruled as no balls. The ICC insists these new technology innovations will not in any way affect the way the game is played or undermine or devalue the role of the on-field umpires. That is something we'll have to wait and see. Television has today become such a powerful money-spinner that the traditions of the game is at its mercy. Television means money and without money cricket cannot go forward. Either you flow with the tide or are left behind. That is the dictum of today. |
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