Former Indian cricketer and commentator Sanjay Manjrekar has called for getting rid of "completely redundant" bails in modern-day cricket after a bizarre incident during the 58th match of the ongoing IPL 2022 between Delhi Capitals (DC) and Rajasthan Royals (RR) on May 11.
In the final delivery of the 9th over during Delhi Capitals’ (DC) successful chase of 161, Yuzvendra Chahal bowled a fast leg-break and David Warner went for a big shot, but the opener completely missed the line, and the ball went past him and hit the leg stump.
Surprisingly, the bails remained intact with the ball only brushing the stump to light up the zing bails, which left Chahal surprised, as Warner was unbeaten at 52 and DC won the match by 8 wickets against Rajasthan Royals (RR).
Manjrekar said on ESPNcricinfo's T20 Time Out show: “I've said this before as well, it's redundant now with the LED stumps to have the bails on. Today it would've been a wicket deserving for Chahal who bowled superbly. It was a terrible shot from Warner, and it didn't get a wicket. Unless it's adding an aesthetic value, they should just get rid of the bails because they're completely redundant with LED technology.”
He continued, “(The bails were used) just to be sure the ball has hit the stumps they had these bails on top because if the ball just kissed the stumps you won't know if there weren't any bails. And the bails were meant to fall off if the stumps were disturbed. But now that you have a sensor, you know the ball has hit the stumps, so why are the bails there?”
Explaining the problem with bails, Manjrekar noted, “If you have the technology, don't have the bails. The other problem with bails is, when there is stumping, you wait for it to light up, and then you're talking about whether both the bails are off the grooves and there's just a lot of complication when you're judging stumped or run out. Just keep it simple.”
He signed off by saying, “I know it won't happen because we don't like to change too many things. We tweak a few other rules, but certain very obvious things aren't done. Getting rid of bails may sound scandalous to a lot of people but it defies common sense.”
(With IANS Inputs)
