Who doesn’t love the beautiful game of cricket? It goes without saying that cricket is one of the most fascinating games to watch today, with the sport boasting millions of spectators.
Specifically, an ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup fixture can boast tens of millions in global audience.
Punters also leverage the attractive betting opportunities top bookmaker apps present on such fixtures. For example, such markets can have over 50 betting markets on 10cric App, downloadable at https://www.telecomasia.net/in/sports-betting/reviews/10cric/mobile-app/.
Indeed, cricket has enjoyed a massive evolution over the last decades. Compared to the sport it was in the 1970s, cricket today has been enormously upgraded with critical technological inventions.
But which of these tech innovations has had the most revolutionary influence in cricket?
HawkEye – Ball Tracking System
HawkEye was one of the trending technology to be introduced in sports sometime in 2001. The introduction of HawkEye technology was revolutionary to how we view cricket matches. This technology uses several high-definition cameras placed strategically around the stadium (which could be on the floor and/or underneath the stadium roof).
HawkEye technology offers a range of functionalities and benefits to cricket. This network of tech is a ball-tracking system focused on tracking the ball’s trajectory immediately after it is shot out of the bowler’s hand. Because of the array of cameras in its network that are scattered around the stadium, HawkEye generates a third-dimensional representation of the trajectory of the ball.
HawkEye comes in handy, especially to broadcasters, commentators, and pundits who want to explain different aspects of a cricket match from different perspectives.
The Bowling Machine
The Bowling Machine is one of the most appealing pieces of tech for practicing batsmen and batswomen. You can view the bowling machine as a mini canon gun that shoots balls at a batsman with different deliveries, including off-break and leg break.
Although this technology was created in 1985, it has gone through a series of advanced makeovers. The bowling machine features two spinning wheels and a barrel that copies the rifling theory to swing and shoot balls in a spinning motion.
You might see the bowling machine as one simple-looking piece of tech, but I promise you that this machine copies bowling techniques comparable to some of the finest fast bowlers like Shane Bond, Wasim, Waqar Younis, and the like.
HotSpot – Edge Detector
One interesting technology that has been introduced to cricket is the HotSpot – Edge Detector. This comes in super handy when making quick decisions and drawing conclusions on the cricket pitch. With HotSpot, the third umpire can give a clear and definite judgment if the ball hits the batsman or his/her pad or bat.
HotSpot technology has long been used in the military, but its introduction in cricket was revolutionary. This technology uses two infrared cameras installed in straight boundaries above the sightscreen. The cameras provide footage of events and also sense when the ball collides with anything.
When the ball collides with anything, the infrared cameras register heat signatures by marking the struck spot with bright coloring. Reviewing footage provided by HotSpot brings clarity and improves decision-making.
Spidercam
The Spidercam is one of the top technologies that has been introduced in cricket. This camera mimics the spider (okay, not really, but in a little way) by floating around the stadium and capturing the moments from almost any angle.
No, the Spidercam doesn’t fly. If it does, it wouldn’t be a Spider-cam anymore, maybe a Dragonflycam. Okay, here’s how it works. The Spidercam is built into a gyro-stabilized camera carrier which is suspended on kevlar cables that are attached to four motorized winches that are fixed at the base of each corner of the stadium.
All of that elongated motorize poles and super strong wires enable the Spidercam to move vertically and horizontally in the covered space. The Spidercam is controlled with software.
Speed Gun
The Speed Gun is not useless in cricket, especially if you want to crown a cricket the fastest bowler ever! This piece of tech, the Speed Gun, is shaped like a sci-fi pistol but doesn’t shoot out anything (of course, it sounds dumb not to). Instead, it is used to tell how fast the cricket ball is moving.
The speed gun uses Doppler radar to measure how fast an object is moving. This piece of tech incorporates a radio transmitter and receiver. It sends out a radio signal in a contracted beam and receives the signal once it bounces off the object.
The Speed Gun is not only tied to measuring the speed of cricket balls but absolutely anything that moves or can be caused to move.
Sportswear and Equipment
Do you know that sportswear and sports equipment are no more mere clothes and pieces of items anymore? With the rise in tech advancements, even the several aspects of sports we never thought would be able to feature tech pieces now feature one piece of chip or a bunch.
Sportswear brands and the International Cricket Council (ICC), working hand-in-hand with tech companies, now use nanotechnology, insulators, and microfibers in sportswear and sporting equipment like the bat, wicket, and gloves, to track and analyze players and the match in general.
Conclusion
From the Spidercam and the HawkEye – ball tracking system to the Speed Gun and more, cricket, just like other top forms of sport, is advancing in technology. In this century, where technology just seems like the natural thing to have, incorporating tech n every aspect of cricket wouldn’t be strange.