Club cricket welcomes affordable Snickometer
Cricket fans will know the Hawk-Eye system, which tracks the ball and generates incredibly accurate predictions of its flight path. A new product being launched by the same team is designed to offer an affordable and accurate version of the Snickometer, meaning it could be used in club cricket, instead of just at international level.
The developers have created a small sensor that can be attached to a bat and is linked to the umpire's smartphone. The sensor is about the size of a 1 pence coin and has been put through a huge range of tests to ensure it can pick up even the slightest bit of contact.
The data is then sent to the umpire who can make the final decision. Of course it would mean the end of the shouts of 'HOWZAT' that have always filled cricket pitches, and traditionalists may not welcome the device's potential for widespread use.
With the new device costing just £25, local clubs won't have to hope there is a secret millionaire or lottery winner amongst them in order to pick one up.
Paul Hawkins, the creator of this new device and a former county player, wants to stop batsmen from standing their ground during a match when they've made contact with the ball.
He told the BBC, "More and more batsmen try and get away with not walking, but we experimented in the nets and found that even the smallest edge is detected."
Hawkins has repeatedly told the press that he hopes to bring affordable technology to all tiers of cricket, so it's not just the international game that benefit from modern innovations.
The sport has always embraced technological innovations, which is something that cannot be said for most, and we can expect it to become a fixture of the club game in the near future.
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