From snicko-meters, Duckworth Lewis and 4-day tests to the best betting bonuses, we're breaking down which are the newest innovations in cricket ahead of this year’s T20 World Cup in Australia, sandpaper optional of course!
Latest Innovations in Cricket Technology
Love it or hate it (as many do) there's no hiding the fact that the grandfather of sport is changing as more and more technology is shaping the game. For the purists amongst us, yes, it slows the game but it also removes the aspects of doubt that have plagued umpires for decades. But which advancements in cricket technology have changed the game the most?
DRS (Decision Review System)
At the forefront of latest controversies, the DRS allows teams to query the decision of an umpire and have it broken down in minute detail to prove their decision correct. Using re-plays from countless angles, ball-tracking and hotspots, most of the time we do get to uncover the correct result but at what cost? The flow of the game is certainly interrupted and more importantly the ethics of the game itself compromised.
The gentleman's game as it's been known for centuries is based on mutual respect for the opposition and umpires and copping the odd decision on the chin. No, you may not have nicked that one through to the keeper but when the finger’s up, you're on your way home son! You can also read more about the International Cricket Councils protocol for DRS in the upcoming T20 World Cup.
Ball Tracking
How this one came about has even NASA bamboozled. Yet somehow the more camera angles you can film and plug into a computer’s algorithm, the exact flight path of a leather-bound ball traveling in excess of 150 mph with seam deviation and natural swing can be pinpointed and recorded to the millimeter! It's like JFK and the grassy knoll but with Steve Smith taking centre stage and the hidden off-cutter being footed for the blame. None-the-less, technology such as Hawk-Eye ball tracking is a great example of recent technology changing a 400 year old game, for better or worse is up to you.
Hotspots and Snicko's
It used to be that if you nicked the ball, you walked. Sadly, a lot of money is now at stake and that can buy a lot of pride and ethics. Enter a specialist microphone in the stumps that detects the faintest of noises to help a third umpire ascertain whether contact was made or not. Couple that with heat sensitive cameras that use kinetic energy to show bat on ball or pad and any doubt is out the window.
Add to these more ultra-slow cameras than a night at the Oscars and you can now remove 99% of doubt from any decision in the game; whether spotting a foot on the boundary, a toe over the crease or a piece of sandpaper in the undies. And the reason for all of this investment is simple; the need to win. Huge sums of cash ride on games these days and with a torrid history of match fixing and cheating, technology is used to remove the doubt. This in turn helps renew the reputation of our beloved sport and leave all the drama in Hollywood, where it belongs.
Online Cricket Betting
Like every other sport, live betting is playing a huge part in how the game of cricket is played. All the technology in use is there to protect the players and officials from any backlash likely to come with rising betting investment in the sport. And with cricket being second to only football in international TV ratings, we can see why.
TV ratings has seen the game of cricket change from a 5-day long game to a mere 3 hours in the space of a few decades. With this year’s T20 World Cup in Australia being the highlight of the cricket calendar, in-play betting is booming like no other sport. Thankfully, there’s a handful of websites out there where you can find the best betting bonuses to get you started.
The Basics of Betting
Yes, you can place a bet on your team winning the game but with ball by ball betting now a huge part of the game, the odds of various occurrences are literally changing by the minute in cricket. Jos Butler sends one into the crowd and you'd be a fool not to guess that he's got his eye in this innings and the same result will follow on the next delivery.
Everything from the next batsman out, how many runs in the over and how many sixes in an innings are all available to bet on with cricket and with great returns. It's the perfect way add that extra level of excitement into a game without having to physically go there.
Best Betting Offers
The key to maximising your betting is to take advantage of the offers that are available from various sites. Yes, different sites will offer different odds on Williamson making a century. But making use of the best betting bonuses reviewed here can really work to your advantage.
The most common betting offers out there are the welcome bonus (a betting bonus can be offered to get you signing up. They come in a wide variety, so it is important to make sure it will be a bonus that fits your style of betting) and the match deposit bonus (the bookmaker may offer a deposit bonus which is essentially an additional amount of money up to a certain percentage to play with).
The Final Over
With all the innovation that has been added to the game of cricket in the last decade it really is an exciting time for the sport. The last World Cup final coming down to the last ball of the match before England walked away with it summed it up perfectly. One can only imagine the odds of the final ending in a draw after 600 balls being bowled.
But for every change there will be pros and cons, however it’s always good to look at the positives in those changes to raise the sport to new levels. Let's embrace the change as we enter into the new world of cricket betting and make the most of the best betting bonuses out there. We can then leave behind the scandals and sordid past and get the gentleman's game back to how it was, just with a little more technology in play and some more money in our pockets.