Enter the Electronic Umpire
Mohandas Menon
Was he out? Or not? Did the ball pitch in line with the stumps, or outside? Would it have carried on to hit the base of middle stump, or missed leg stump by the width of three stumps? Was the batsman cheated, or the bowler denied?
Every series, every LBW dismissal, ever action replay in the recent past has fuelled raging debates -- all swirling around one of the trickiest decisions an umpire makes on a cricket field.
The news is that if a new initiative takes, the umpire will no longer be required to make the decision.
Sky TV is on the verge of pioneering state of the art technology to adjudicate on LBW appeals. Invented by British scientist Dr Paul Hawkins, the gadget is named Hawk Eye -- partly in honour of its inventor, partly as a descriptor of what it will do.
It is based on missile tracking technology first employed during the Gulf War. To harness it, special cameras will be played all around the ground, to provide three-dimensional images of the ball from the moment it leaves the bowler's hand, to the moment it impacts on the batsman's pad.
Based on the photographic inputs, the gadget will calculate, in a split second, where the ball pitched, the extent of its lateral movement in the air and off the wicket, its velocity and bounce, and the exact spot on which it impacted on the batsman's pad. It will then compute whether, in the given parameters, the ball would then have carried on to hit the stumps, bounced over, or gone past.
The equipment is approximately the size of a mobile phone, and fits neatly in the umpire's palm. When in operation, it will provide instant readings such as "Pitched outside off", "Pitched outside leg", "Pitched on leg", "Hitting leg", etc.
There is no more room for doubt. What you get is a clean, clear, clinical decision. One that even a dozen action replays cannot find fault with.
The International Cricket Council has asked for a demonstration, at the start of this season, at Lord's. If the demo lives up to the advance billing, the ICC is likely to give the official go-ahead for the introduction of the device, at the international level, within a year.
