Immovable bails, do we still need them ?
In world cup 2019 , Five times in 13 games since the tournament started a bowler has hit the stumps and the electronic ‘zing’ bails have lit up but stayed firmly in place. Australia opener David Warner was the latest lucky one to have escape when the ball Bumrah recociated of Warners body on to his leg stump on Sunday at The Oval but the bails didn’t move a milimeter.
Here are the four earlier incidents
- England v South Africa, The Oval: England leg-spinner Adil Rashid flicks the off stump of South Africa’s Quinton de Kock with a delivery which goes to the boundary for four.
- New Zealand v Sri Lanka, Cardiff: Dimuth Karunaratne chops New Zealand pace bowler Trent Boult on to his stumps, hard enough to shake the bails but not dislodge them.
- Australia v West Indies, Trent Bridge. Chris Gayle is given out caught behind off a 93mph delivery by Australia pace bowler Mitchell Starc, but the decision is ovetured by TV umpire as it was found that the ball hit stumps rather than bat.
- England v Bangladesh, Cardiff. Bangladesh’s Mohammad Saifuddin miscues a pull off Ben Stokes on to his off stump. The bail lifts out of the groove briefly but doesn’t fall.
The question is what is the role of bails in modern day cricket , do we still need them in era of sensors?
Originally, cricket wickets had only two stumps and one bail and looked like a gate. The third (middle) stump was introduced in 1775, after Lumpy Stevens bowled three successive deliveries to John Small that went straight through the two stumps rather than hitting them. So then it came the middle stump. And the single bail was broken into two, but they continued to exist as it gave indication of wheather the ball have hit the wickets or not. But fast forward to 2019, today our technology is so advanced that the sensors in wickets can sense even a feather touch. In such a time what is the role of bails. why can’t the stamps lit up as soon as the balls touch them? Why do they need to wait for the bails to be fully dislodged ? Or should we use lighter bails ?
Please give your view in comments,
