Technology On The Cricket Pitch

This article first appeared in the June 2008 issue of it magazine. This is part of the Folk Technology series that I write every month.






Technology today is affecting not only how cricket is played, but also how audiences enjoy the game.


"Yes, Hawk-Eye confirms that the ball is just missing the off stump, so the umpire was right in giving the Not Out decision,” said Ravi Shastri, ex-cricketer and well known television commentator, while commenting on a cricket match for a national TV audience.

Hawk-Eye, the computer system used to track the path of the cricket ball, was first introduced in 2001. It uses computer software to combine the view from six or more cameras to construct a three dimensional representation of the cricket ball’s path. So when the ball hits the batsman’s pads, it predicts how the ball would have continued to travel had it not hit the pads. Today, it is used to enhance the viewing experience for television audiences. While the umpire’s decision is final, commentators use Hawk-Eye’s prediction to evaluate LBW decisions and provide technical analysis.


Bowling analysis

Increasingly, the virtual strip pops up on the television screen, to show the ball’s motion and a ball pitch map. A computer rendering of the pitch is made where every ball is mapped from the real field to the computer rendered field. It now becomes possible to compare every ball with other balls in the over and in the match. Bowlerlevel statistics can then be aggregated to show where a bowler has been pitching the ball. Similarly, for the batsman, an aggregated view of his shots, the wagon wheel, is shown.


Most of the technology in cricket has been introduced by broadcasters to enhance the viewing pleasure for television audiences.

The speed gun

Statistics like bowling speed, measured using a speed gun, are of great interest to viewers. A speed gun uses radar technology to measure how radio waves are reflected by the ball, as it travels through the air after leaving the bowler’s hand; and the speed is immediately displayed on our TV screens.

The eyes and ears of the stump!

The ‘Stump Vision’ camera was another innovative use of technology that made its entry in the late 1990s. A small camera is fitted on the stump, connected using an underground wire, to give a stump-level view of the playing field.

The snick-o-meter is used to determine whether the ball had hit the bat, in contentious caught-behind decisions. A stump mike picks up all the sounds in the vicinity. Audio processing software is used to analyse the sounds that this mike picks up. Ambient noise (like crowd noise) is cancelled out from the sound picked up by this mike, to highlight relevant sounds like faint nicks of the ball on the bat.

These are technologies that we have all become familiar with. And television broadcasters are looking at yet newer technologies that can enhance the kind of technical analysis provided to the viewers.

Imperfect Technology

Like all computer technology, the aids used in cricket too can make mistakes. Hawk-Eye, for all the numerous cameras it uses, can still be incorrect. Pitches have uneven bounce, the amount of spin imparted to the ball cannot be measured by cameras, there is ball movement through the air; so even though Hawk-Eye tracks the ball through the 18 or so yards before it hits the batsman’s pads, it can still make errors in predicting the trajectory through the remaining distance before hitting the stumps.

Similarly, the snick-o-meter can pick up sounds other than the ball hitting the bat—like the boot movement (of the batsman or keeper), pads rubbing etc. Even the speed gun is not totally accurate. For example, the ball speed when it reaches the batsman can be different from when the ball was dispatched by the bowler.

Future technologies for cricket

Technology, however, is constantly improving. Infrared cameras have been tested in place of snick-o-meters; they can pick up friction readings, and are close to 100 per cent accurate in detecting snicks. There are now also balls available with built-in speedometers. Fit a transmitting device on such a ball, and you can have the speed of the ball at any given instant.

With so much competition between rival broadcasters, the race is on to maximise the viewing pleasure. One plan is to put wireless tracking devices on individual players. This device would measure and transmit live data during the game, to a central computer. Parameters tracked by this device include the running speed of a player, a bowler’s speed during the run-up, the maximum speed and average running speed, the number of times a player changes direction, distances travelled, heart rates, etc. Very soon, such data relating to the bowler and fielders will be flashed to viewers. Commentators will also have a lot more data about individual players at their disposal. But imagine the pressure it will put on the fielders. Today it is only the umpires who are scrutinised for their decisions. Soon, it will be possible to minutely analyse every player’s activities on the field in real time. We will know the exact reasons for why one agile player managed to stop the ball whizzing past him to the boundary, and why another player was not able to.


Processing technology currently being used in video surveillance, object recognition and machine vision among others, needs to be tailored for and applied to cricket.

Technology for coaching

With the coming of IPL (Indian Premier League) and ICL (Indian Cricket League), crores of rupees have been staked on individual players. Franchisees want value for the money they are paying the players; they want the players to perform to their full potential. In 2007, the coaching staff of the English team loaded players’ iPods with clips of opposition players in action, along with footage of their own players, for analysis. Individual players were glued to their iPods, looking for weaknesses in the opposition players’ approaches, and their own team’s strengths. But these video clips were manually selected by coaches after going through numerous videos. What if technology is used to index and search the huge collection of match videos? Also, statistics can be automatically derived from these videos.


Imagine how useful information about individual players can be. What are the typical ways a particular player gets out? How does he play against short-pitched deliveries? What is his scoring rate when faced with good-length deliveries outside the off stump? Such information can be vital to bowlers. It is just a matter of time before the coaches start looking for aids that provide this. So will technology enable this?

In every second of video, there are 25 or more frames. Each frame comprises small dots called pixels. So as a white ball moves, the white pixels corresponding to it move from frame to frame. With multiple cameras, the view of the pitch and the ball is available from multiple angles. Video processing allows objects of interest to be tracked from frame to frame, automatically. So it is possible to track the ball, the bat, or a player, within a series of images. The result of such models will be individualised performance charts derived from past matches. When a player goes through a rough patch, he can compare his shots to the same balls during the purple patch, on a computer. But such technology for cricket still needs to be developed. Processing technology currently being used in video surveillance, object recognition and machine vision among others, needs to be tailored for and applied to cricket.

In real match conditions, there are so many factors that affect players—from weather, the spectators, the state of the ball, to the mental tussle between bowler and batsman trying to outsmart and out-think the other. But with more information about the conditions, the opposition and about one’s own abilities, there is a definite advantage to be had.

StumpVision was one of the first startups (Anil Kumble, India’s current Test captain and a great spin bowler, runs it) in the sports software space in India. Now that more and more attention and money is being focused on technology for cricket, many more are bound to follow. IPL and ICL will provide the impetus for many start-ups that will focus on enhancing the player’s ability and the audience’s viewing pleasure.

(Part of the monthly Folk Technology Series that I write for i.t. magazine)