Tony Becca, Contributing Editor
ON FRIDAY, the second day of the Test match now being played at Edgbaston, the batsmen of England and the West Indies, headed by Andrew Flintoff and Geraint Jones, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Brian Lara, treated the fans to some exciting batting while scoring 437 runs off 89.4 overs for the loss of six wickets.
While the batsmen were stroking and smashing ball after ball to the boundary and over the boundary, however, there was something happening behind the scenes the filming of spin bowlers on both teams.
No, it is not because they have been reported as throwers or suspected to be throwers. It is part of a research during which all slow bowlers in international cricket will be filmed.
In a bid to rid cricket of a growing number of spin bowlers who are throwing instead of bowling, the International Cricket Council, starting last Friday, will be busy filming the action of the slow bowlers during international matches - an exercise that will continue for the rest of the Test series and during the ICC Champions Trophy tournament in September.
SPIN BOWLERS
According to David Richardson, the ICC general manager cricket, throwing by spin bowlers is now as widespread as throwing by fast bowlers, and in an effort to do something about it, the ICC has commissioned Dr. Paul Hurrion, a leading human movement specialist, to carry out a filming programme and to provide interpretation of the data.
The filming calls for a high-speed camera behind the bowler's arm and one square of the pitch, the cameras will film at a speed of 250 frames per second - five times the speed of a standard television camera, and the footage from both cameras will then be combined and converted by a software programme to create a three-dimensional image of the action together with the ability to analyse it in details.
In recent times, bowlers have been a certain degree of tolerance as far as the elbow is concerned and, according to Richardson, the research "will provide the ICC with information that can be used in considering the levels of tolerance for the accepted amount of extension at the elbow - either in terms of straightening or hyper-extension of the arm".
The tolerance for fast bowlers is 10 degrees, and for slow bowlers it is five degrees. According to the Dr. Hurrion, an expert in the throwing of the javelin, the research "will provide a clear scientific explanation of what actually happens during the delivery action of the world's leading slow bowlers".
In Dr. Hurrion's opinion, while a laboratory is likely to produce slightly more accurate data because of the controlled conditions, a competitive match situation guarantees the correct levels of player effort and technical applications in the most realistic conditions and that is true.
It does not take a genius to appreciate that testing a bowler in the nets for throwing is not the same as testing him in a match when the pressure of performing is on.
"Once Dr. Hurrion's data has been processed and analysed following the completion of the ICC Champions Trophy tournament, it will be used to by the ICC and its specialist advisors to consider if the levels of tolerance for slow bowlers need to be reviewed," says Richardson.
Although it is not being done in this Test match and will not be done anytime during the series, the ICC, in its effort to improve the decision-making process by umpires, will also be carrying out another experiment during the Champions Trophy tournament - an experiment to see if technology can really improve the quality and the consistency of umpiring.
The experiment will see standing umpires wired-up to television microphones in the stumps and third umpires calling no-balls.
According to Richardson, umpires will wear an earpiece which is designed to pick up the sound from the stump microphone as the ball passes the batsman. The exercise is to find out if the microphone can pick up things such as a thin edge to the wicketkeeper or to bat/pad fielders.
That is not all. In another in the bid to cut out as many mistakes as possible, there will be yet another experiment - this time at the triangular tournament involving India, Pakistan and Australia in Holland before the ICC Champions Trophy.
In that experiment, standing umpires will not call no-balls. That will be done by the third umpire (the television umpire) who will communicate with the standing umpire through his earpiece.
UMPIRING MISTAKES
If all these experiments prove that technology can rid the game of throwers and cut down the number of umpiring mistakes, that, in most cases, would be good for cricket. If, for example, the stump microphones work, a batsman will no longer be given out caught at bad/pad when he has not touched the ball, and despite thunderous appeals, the bowler will not get a wicket when the ball misses the bat and bounces of the pad and into a fielder's hands at silly point or short-leg.
The problem is with the no-ball call.
While a batsman will be saved if he is dismissed by a no-ball, with the third umpire in the pavilion making the call and not the umpire at the wicket, the batsman, unlike the situation now, certainly will not be able to score from it, and for one simple reason.
By the time the third umpire tells the standing umpire that a no-ball has been bowled the batsman can do nothing about it. It will be too late for him to react - to swing his bat in the hunt for some free, trouble-free runs.
