LED bails and stumps in T20 cricket

Fig 1 : Lighting bails and Stumps (Mahendra Singh Dhoni)

This idea came to Bronte EcKermann of a mechanical industrial designer from Australia. The idea was put into action and product by Zing International and therefor its known as Zing Wicket System. This wicket systems were implemented in a club game in Australia at Adelaide. As we all know that its very difficult to umpire to figure out if the bails have left the stumps while run out or stumping, these wickets proved to be a great and fancy means to get decision right.

Only after three years of research, this research was implemented into international cricket at semi final and final match of under-19 world cup in UAE. In 20 over formats, these stumps were used in many countries by that time. One of the worlds biggest league of cricket also used these stumps that is IPL.

Fig. 2 : Zing bails made up of plastic and Equipped with LED 

The stumps and bails are equipped with low voltage batteries to light the LED as shown in above figure and give power to other components inside it like sensors and microprocessors. If the bails are dislodged from stumps contact, the sensor senses and microprocessor makes the bails and stumps to glow the LED. All these  processing is completed in 1/10000 th second which is much fast than human recognition. These are made up of plastic and is light weight just like wooden bails.

We all know how a batsman gets out. This stumps makes it easy for umpire and us to analize when bails left the stumps. Now lets know about the price of these sets of stumps and wickets. In the matter of cost, you can buy a iPhone with the cost of a set of Zing Wicket System. Its around 40 thousand USD.  

Hawk-Eye Technology in cricket

Cricket

The technology was first used by Channel 4 during a Test match between England and Pakistan on Lord's Cricket Ground, on 21 May 2001. It is used primarily by the majority of television networks to track the trajectory of balls in flight. In the winter season of 2008/2009 the ICC trialled a referral system where Hawk-Eye was used for referring decisions to the third umpire if a team disagreed with an LBW decision. The third umpire was able to look at what the ball actually did up to the point when it hit the batsman, but could not look at the predicted flight of the ball after it hit the batsman.

Its major use in cricket broadcasting is in analysing leg before wicket decisions, where the likely path of the ball can be projected forward, through the batsman's legs, to see if it would have hit the stumps. Consultation of the third umpire, for conventional slow motion or Hawk-Eye, on leg before wicket decisions, is currently sanctioned in international cricket even though doubts remain about its accuracy in cricket.

The Hawk-eye referral for LBW decision is based on three criteria:

• Where the ball pitched
• The location of impact with the leg of the batsman
• The projected path of the ball past the batsman

In all three cases, marginal calls result in the on-field call being maintained.

Due to its realtime coverage of bowling speed, the systems are also used to show delivery patterns of bowler's behaviour such as line and length, or swing/turn information. At the end of an over, all six deliveries are often shown simultaneously to show a bowler's variations, such as slower deliveries, bouncers and leg-cutters. A complete record of a bowler can also be shown over the course of a match.

Batsmen also benefit from the analysis of Hawk-Eye, as a record can be brought up of the deliveries batsmen scored from. These are often shown as a 2-D silhouetted figure of a batsmen and colour-coded dots of the balls faced by the batsman. Information such as the exact spot where the ball pitches or speed of the ball from the bowler's hand (to gauge batsman reaction time) can also help in post-match analysis.