New technology to detect snicks could prove a game changer for club cricket
Bat sensors to give umpires the edge
Non-walkers beware, your days are numbered.
Paul Hawkins, the inventor of ball-tracking system Hawk-Eye, has created a bat sensor, around the size of an Australian five cent coin, and an accompanying smartphone app which can detect the faintest of snicks.
The standing umpires, both behind the bowler and at square-leg, attach the smartphone to their jacket in order to film each ball to provide replays and show where the ball pitched and its trajectory in lbw decisions.
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The plan is to introduce the technology into amateur cricket in England, with the tiny sensor, which currently costs £25 (AUD46), easily fixed onto the bat.
The technology is close to public use, according to former county player and missile-guidance expert Hawkins.
Hawkins said the idea was born after playing in a Hampshire league cricket match last year and watching on as a batsman edged a ball and was caught by the wicketkeeper, only to stand his ground and be given not out.
"Batsmen have always not walked, but what really got me was that after the inevitable bout of sledging from the fielders, the batsman said, 'I know I nicked it and you know I did, but so what, it wasn’t given'," Hawkins told The Times UK.
"More and more batsmen try and get away with it. We got him out soon afterwards, but it ruined my day."
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The sensor works on detecting vibrations in the bat, and when linked with the smartphone, works in tandem with a replay of the dismissal like the Real Time Snicko technology shown on international cricket coverage.
"We experimented in the nets and found that even the finest edge, a "feather" that the bowler didn’t hear, is detected," Mr Hawkins said, who worked with Tim Dean on the project.