April 27, 2021
All over the world, cricket is the second most-watched sport that there is, but in India, it is the first. We are a nation of cricket lovers, both playing and watching, but how many of us have stopped to think about how we receive the coverage that we do today? It used to be that we could listen on the radio, next some of us could watch a grainy picture on the television. Nowadays we are treated to a crystal clear picture, complete with pop-ups of statistics, slowed down replays, accurate trajectories, and more. It tasks a great deal of technological innovation to bring this information into the homes of cricket fans, so here is how it works.
As we mentioned before, in terms of world viewing figures cricket comes second only to football. Interestingly though, cricket came first in the introduction of a decision review system. Whilst the English Premier League only introduced the controversial VAR in 2018, cricket introduced its own Decision Review System in 2008, a whole decade earlier. Unlike in football, there are three umpires in cricket, but the introduction of the DRS means that even when the umpires agree on a result, members of the team are allowed to challenge those decisions.
The footage will be reviewed by the television official and the result will be decided. In order to keep play running smoothly and keep interruptions minimal, each team is only allowed to have three unsuccessful challenges per innings. The footage that is captured has to be absolutely accurate in order for this piece of technology to function as it should, so here is how that footage is captured.
One of the key pieces of information that the third umpire in charge of the DRS sees is the path of the cricket ball. This information is particularly important when deciding on leg before wicket decisions. It is obtained using a piece of technology called Hawkeye, which has been used in cricket since 2001. The trajectory of the ball is worked out by six high-performance cameras that are mounted on the roof of the stadium. These cameras follow the movement of the ball, plotting points as they go. When this information reaches the third umpire, they can clearly see where the ball was pitched, whether the ball hit the batsman's leg or not, and if it did, where it would have ended up had it not. Using this information the third umpire can decide whether to award the LBW.
One of the factors that IPL cricket betting sites take into account when deciding on odds for individual bowlers is the ball's revolutions per minute. There are lots of different betting types that this can effect. A common bet that people make is on the number of boundaries. This sort of bet is one that would be greatly effected by a fast spin-bowler. If that combination comes up at good odds, it could be worth looking for a betting bonus. There are often free bets and deposit match bonuses available for those wanting to bet on cricket online, so it pays to keep looking for them. This information is gathered using a similar piece of technology to Hawkeye. Statistics like this are invaluable to betting companies, as quantifiable data makes it far easier for them to accurately price outcomes. In the instance of this data, the ball spin RPM is collected in the same way that Hawkeye data is, with one high-speed camera that focuses on the ball. Taking into account the frame rate of the camera and the footage that it collects, it is possible to ascertain the revolutions per minute of the ball, as well as the speed of the ball itself.
Another piece of technology that is vital to the umpires' decisions is hot spot technology. This tech is used primarily for deciding whether the batsman hit the ball or not. Whilst this used to often be a straightforward decision, with batting at such an innovative stage in cricket nowadays, it is becoming harder and harder to tell with the naked eye.
This technology works using two infrared cameras that are placed directly opposite each other on either side of the batsman. The cameras pick up the friction between the ball and whatever it hits. Once this information is relayed to viewers at home, a white dot can be seen at the area of impact. The umpire sees the same image and can therefore decide if the batsman did indeed hit the ball, or not.
An interesting bit of technology that is sometimes used to the same effect as the hot spot cameras is known as the snick-o-meter. This piece of tech is just a very simple microphone that is incredibly sensitive. It is attached to one of the stumps along with an oscilloscope (a device used to measure sound waves). Between the microphone and the oscilloscope, it is possible to ascertain whether the ball touched the wickets or the bat, before being caught by the fielding team.