Sports Technology & Communications News from Around the World

Technology has affected every facet of our lives, and sports is no exception. One sport that has particularly embraced technology in a big way is cricket. This game uses technology extensively for many purposes such as creating scoreboards, determining if the ball hit the bat, tracking the trajectory of the ball, compiling the heart rate of bowlers to understand the ball speed, real-time commentary and much more.

The following are the prominent technologies used in cricket.

Snickometer

The snickometer is a technology that uses microphones to detect if the ball touched the edge of the players' bat. Also known as snicko, this technology uses sound frequencies to check if the ball hit the bat or the batsman's glove. This information is important to accurately determine if the player is out or if he can continue to play. The dowside of snicko is that it is not always right as it takes time to collate the data. Further, there can be other noises that can distort the sound frequencies.

Hawk Eye

One of the most widely used technology is Hawk Eye. It is used to judge the trajectory of the ball to know if the umpire has made the right Leg Before Wicket (LBW) decisions. This technology eliminates the chances for bad decisions by predicting the path of the ball after it has left the bowler's hands.

Hot Spot

Hot spot is another ball-tracking technology that uses infrared cameras to identify the heat signature of the ball. This is mainly used to determine if the ball hit the faint edges of the bat, which in turn will help the third umpire to make the right decisions. The biggest disadvantage of this technology is that fast balls are hard to determine due to lack of friction.

These devices have changed the face of cricket in many ways. It has made the game a level playing field for all players and provides better entertainment for the audience.