The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is going to take the help of technology in order to ensure that umpires don’t miss any of the front foot no-balls in the upcoming edition of IPL 2020. This operation was started during the second Test between India and Bangladesh in Kolkata and will continue in the upcoming series against West Indies.
The board is testing the technology of getting run out cameras to pick no-balls so that umpires do not miss the landing of the bowler’s foot - an area that came under heavy criticism in the last edition of the Indian Premier League. This front foot no-ball issue has plagued the world cricket big time with umpires missing 21 such instances in the first Test between Australia and Pakistan in Brisbane in the first two sessions of the second day.
“Yes, it is a work in progress. IPL has always stood for innovation. Our endeavor is to make sure that every season of the IPL sees new technology come in and helps in the progress of the game. More importantly, why should a player suffer if technology can help erase the issue? In the past, we have seen that the front foot no-ball is a grey area and I am of the view that technology which can help in detecting front foot no-balls can be put to use. Massive testing is being done and will continue in the West Indies series as well,” BCCI joint secretary Jayesh George said in an interview with IANS.
“Along with my colleagues, we want to take a second look at the whole process after the data is collected and then move forward with the idea,” he said when asked whether the data collected will be discussed board officials and the IPL GC members.
The same cameras that are used to check runout will be used in this operation and it is clicking 300 frames per second. This frame then can be zoomed into as per the wish of the operator. The idea to do so was brought forward during the Governing Council meeting of the IPL earlier this month.
“If all goes well, during the next IPL, you could see another umpire apart from the regular umpires just to observe no-balls. The concept sounds weird, but this was among the issues discussed in the IPL GC meeting. We want to use technology. We are having another umpire for only observing no-balls. There will be an umpire, who will be focused on no-balls only. And he will not be the third or fourth umpire,” a GC member said.
(IANS inputs)
