Technology @ Play

22 players. 4 umpires. And a computer. Is that why cricket has become full of glitches?

AD: Hey, no mails from you for a long time... no Facebook updates, no Twitter messages...

BC: Ever since the World Cup began, I haven't managed to go near the computer. The only screen that I've been staring at is that of my TV.

AD: Well, you can probably do without a computer, but cricket can’t.

BC: Computers in cricket? Now I know why the game has frequent stoppages, its future ‘hangs’ in balance, newer versions are constantly being tried out and everyone’s claiming that the game’s gone corrupt.

AD: Oh c’mon! Technology adds a lot more clarity and insight to the game.

BC: Really?

AD: The UDRS (Umpire Decision Review System) ensures that the on-field umpires don’t make mistakes…

BC: …except in lbw decisions when the impact of the ball on the pads is over 2.5 metres from the stumps.

AD: Well, the ICC has amended that rule now. What about Hotspot? That’s hi-tech stuff used by the military - it creates bright spots when there is friction produced by the collision of two objects. So it’s easy to spot an edge when the bat comes in contact with the ball.

BC: What use is technology that can’t be made available everywhere? This World Cup is being played without Hotspot as the team behind it wasn’t willing to provide the infra-red cameras.

AD: If you can’t see the edges, you can hear them with the Snickometer. It has a microphone connected to an oscilloscope and if there’s noise of ball brushing the bat, it’s displayed graphically…

BC: It’s not just edges that you can hear… Kids at home are being exposed to terrible language and desperate sledging by the players because of the microphone. At this rate, we’ll soon need a new technology to beep out their swearing.

AD: What about Hawkeye then? It’s a computer system that traces a ball's trajectory and predicts if it would have hit the stumps.

BC: Does Hawkeye take into account factors like the deteriorating nature of the pitch, wear and tear of the ball or weather conditions? Any of these can alter a ball’s trajectory.

AD: Talking of weather, Duckworth Lewis is a big help in achieving a result in rain-affected matches…

BC: You should ask South Africa that. In the 1992 World Cup, they needed to score 22 runs off one ball, thanks to the rule. Duckworth Lewis has still not been understood by most and is like a bad formula in school that everyone learns by heart without understanding it.

AD: What about ProBatter, a virtual reality tool that simulates the deliveries of any bowler in the world? Apparently it played a key role in England winning the Ashes.

BC: Really? If that were so, they should have won the subsequent one-day series too. Any particular reasons why they didn’t practice with ProBatter then?

AD: Are you trying to tell me that technology is no good in cricket?

BC: Well, when was the last time someone had an average of 99.94 or took 19 wickets in a test because of a computer?

AD: But the viewing pleasure…

BC: After having waded through the worm, the manhattan, the beehive, stump vision, wagon wheels, pitch maps, rail cam and spider graphs, you realise that cricket was once a simple game…

AD: Obviously technology and you don’t go together.

BC: But my life has a lot in common with cricket. Technology has successfully managed to complicate both.