ZING BAILS AND THE RUN OUT SAGA

Big Bash League has brought in a lot of innovations in the T20 format of Cricket. Very recently, BBL 10 brought in three new concepts, the Power Serge, X Factor and the Bash Boost Point system as an experiment.

The Power Serge is just breaking up the 6 overs powerplay concept into 4 overs up front and 2 overs to be taken by the batting team anytime between the 11^th to 19^th Over. The impact of the move is yet to be seen as most teams still now are struggling to find the right time to take the serge advantage by loosing wickets at crucial times leaving the lesser know hitters or the tail enders to bat out the Serge overs.

X Factor has been introduced to make sure a 12^th man gets into the game as a main player depending on the match situation. The swap has to be done at the end of the 10^th over of the first innings with a stipulation of the player going out has not batted or if it is from the fielding team, the player has not bowled more than 1 over. I feel this can be a very good move going forward with the players playing so many tournaments, may pick up muscle pulls, ham strings and other injuries in the first few overs of the match gets an option of getting replaced.

Bash Boost Point is a bonus point introduced at the half way mark of the second innings comparing both teams score, and the team having more runs gets a bonus point. I feel, this move is done just as an experiment because if a match situation is such that the team batting first scored 90 runs in the first 10 overs and then got bundled out for 140. The chasing team does not need to go hard to get to that 91 runs mark in the 10^th over as they can pace the chase differently and as a result, ends up losing a point.

Coming back to the point of discussion and the much- accepted innovation BBL had earlier came up with, the Zing Bails in 2012 and then later on it became an integral part of white ball cricket globally. The LED lights flashing up every time the ball hits the wickets has become a fan craze point specially under the flood lights. Looks quite a spectacle. The modern game has seen a different method of umpiring where most umpires tends to double check on a run out or a stumping appeal even after being absolutely sure that the batsman is way in.

Decision Pending, the scoreboard shows these two words and a sound of heartbeat keeps running on the screens till the third umpire makes his/her decision. We often see in a very close call, the videos shown to the umpires till they freeze the screen is when the bails are lit up. It is a game of an inch which can seal the deal as we had seen in the World Cup 2019 semi final match when MS Dhoni got run out which took India out of the World Cup.

My point here is, according to the rules of the game, the bail has to be completely dislodged from both the sides to perform a run out or stumping provided the batsman did not cross the crease with the bat grounded. In most of the really close calls we see nowadays, it is a matter of two frames where one can be bat on the line and the second frame can be over the line. But with the zings on and the flash of the LED, we often see umpires not giving much of a look at the complete dislodging of the bails from both sides and taking the decisions based on the time the LED flashes. We have also seen instances where the ball hits the wicket sometimes without any momentum and the bails are not dislodged the but the stumps and the bails still flashes.

The question that comes to my mind now, “Is the cricket world compromising on the rules of the game just to get the fan cheers going”?

By Sayandeep Dutta

View My Blogs at: https://stumpmiccricket.blogspot.com/