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No one would deny that the Umpire's job in cricket is a very tough one. Decisions that can change the outcome of a match have to be made in split seconds.
Leg Before Wicket or LBW is one of the most difficult decisions a cricket umpire has to make. In a split second he must decide if ball has struck the pad and whether that ball would have gone on to strike the wicket. Here is a new technology called the "Hawk Eye" to rescue the umpires.
The system consists of 3 cameras that capture the path of the ball. The system shows the path the ball might have travelled had it not been obstructed by the batsman's pads. If the predicted path shows that the ball would have hit the wickets then the batsman is out. This information is passed on to the umpire through a hand held display to help him take a decision. The system is so accurate that it can predict the path to within 5 mm of the stumps.
LEG BEFORE WICKET
A batsman is given LBW and declared out if the ball bowled is aimed towards the stumps but hits the batsman anywhere except his bat which the umpire thinks would have hit the stumps.
Famous LBW's
Aaqib Javed of Pakistan took a hat trick against India at Sharjah in 1991/92. All the three batsmen out were out LBW, which is the only example in a one day match.
AS Kennedy, a Hampshire all-rounder was given out LBW in six successive innings in 1924.
Tom Pugh (1961) of Gloucestershire, during a match against Northamptonshire, ducked into a ball, had his jaw broken in two places and was given out - LBW
Did you know ?
The speed of the fastest ball ever bowled was 160 km per hour.
Did you know?
"Hawk Eye" was developed by Dr. Paul Hawkins of UK and it works on the same technology that is used for tracking the path of missiles.
It can also help bowlers while training, to record where they are pitching the ball, how much bounce they extract from the pitch and how fast was the ball travelling.
How do we determine who is the fastest bowler in the world?
The speed of the cricket ball is determined with the help of a Doppler Radar gun. The gun can determine speed upto an accuracy of about 2 kmph. The radar gun actually throws a radio wave at the ball when it is released from the bowler's hand. The ball then reflects the radio wave back to the radar. This repeated sending and receiving of the sound waves helps the radar to calculate the distance travelled in a unit of time thus determining the speed of the ball.
Incidentally this is the same technology that is used by Air traffic controllers to determine the location of aircrafts in its airspace. |
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