The International Cricket Council (ICC) has refused to change or remove the ‘zing’ bails, which sometimes fail to come off even when the ball hits the stumps, citing “statistical anomaly”.
India captain Virat Kohli and his Australian counterpart Aaron Finch had recently complained about the flashing LED bails that glow after being hit, making the TV umpires’ job a shade easy, but do not come off a lot of times.
In 13 completed matches so far, there have been five instances where the bails have not dislodged despite the ball hitting the stumps fairly hard. David Warner became the latest batsman to enjoy the good fortune, when he chopped Jasprit Bumrah first ball to the stumps only to find the bails remain stubborn.
“We wouldn’t change anything mid-event as it would compromise the integrity of the event – the equipment is the same for all 10 teams across all 48 games,” the ICC was quoted as saying by SkySports.
“The stumps have not changed in the last four years. They have been used in all ICC events since the 2015 Men’s Cricket World Cup and in a range of domestic events,” ICC added.
A microprocessor in each bail detects when both spigots, or edges of the bail, have become dislodged from the stump’s grooves. The zing illuminates within 1/1000th of a second when the connection between the bails and the stumps is being made.
It is estimated that the weight of a ‘zing’ bail is around thrice that of a normal bail.
