The International Cricket Council (ICC) has always been promoting new technologies in the game of cricket. Hawkeye, Ultra Edge, Snicko-meter have been some of the shining examples of the newly-adopted technologies. The newest technology to make its way into the game is the “no-ball” technology and the governing body is going to use it in one of the ICC tournaments.
ICC has announced that the “no-ball” technology will be used in the upcoming ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup, starting from February 21. Geoff Allardice, General Manager of ICC, confirmed the news and shared that it is difficult for umpires to call no-balls “accurately” and those calls must be made correctly as they can change the course of the game for any team.
“No balls are difficult for umpires to call accurately, and even though the percentage of deliveries that are no balls is low, it is important to call them correctly,” said ICC general manager Geoff Allardice.
Allardice also highlighted that since the “no-ball” technology was introduced in 2016, it has come a long way and it has improved a lot.
“Since we first trialed this concept in the ODI series between England and Pakistan in 2016 the technology has improved significantly,” Allardice added.
The introduction of the “no-ball” rule means that the third umpire will now monitor the front foot no-ball at the ICC Women’s T20 Cricket World Cup. The on-field umpires will now communicate to the third umpire if they feel that it is no-ball.
According to the ICC, the technology has been trialed across 12 games in which 4717 balls were bowled. They also revealed that the recent usage of no-ball technology predicted all the no-balls correctly in India and the West Indies.
The first game in ICC Women’s T20 World Cup will be played between Australia and India at the Sydney Cricket Ground on February 21. Australia is the defending champions and will look forward to winning their fifth title. Meanwhile, teams like India, New Zealand, and South Africa will be front-runners too.
Recently, Australian speedster Mitchell Starc wants the spectators to flock the venues, especially the finals. Speaking about the tournament, Starc urged the people to come in big numbers tour support the female cricketers during the World Cup.
His wife and cricketer Alyssa Healy also hoped that people would support the Australian team and the women’s cricket as a whole.
