Zimbabwe-Pakistan: Hawkeye camera discussed as batsmen get better angles

Image copyright NASA Image caption One of the best seen looks at her upper lip

A picture of a blonde beauty that somehow gets round the difference between the width of her mouth and top lip has been used by officials to try to get a new ruling introduced.

Hawkeye, a device used by the international cricket board to examine stump microphones, was criticised by India for not being clearly visible.

Three months later, the BCCI has re-wanted Hawk-Eye to be a wider camera angle for the first test in South Africa in November.

But that suggestion has been roundly dismissed by players and umpires.

Hawkeye’s reduced coverage – a pitch-side camera – will be used for the Zimbabwe-Pakistan Test in Harare this week.

Umpires walk around the ground looking at close-up angles of the game.

But once they have been able to view full replays, only the fine detail, such as whether or not a batsman’s front pad was at fault, is visible.

And there have been mixed reviews of Hawk-Eye technology.

The object of many playing fields across the world is to overturn umpires’ decisions, including the Decision Review System.

But Hawk-Eye’s difficulty in recognising body hair is one of the reasons why fans sometimes ridicule it when they are expecting an appealing lbw decision.

Image copyright PA Image caption An example of the officials missing a rejected lbw appeal

But one of Hawk-Eye’s owners, Andrew Anderson, has a new idea for the ruling system – look at the way men’s tennis player John Isner walks and try to introduce Hawkeye on a wider basis.

In a preview for the Zimbabwe-Pakistan Test, Anderson said: “People laugh at tennis players’ hair and compared to the umpires, on cricket it’s an even bigger issue and there are restrictions that we can’t do more.

“It is always exciting to see these challenges from teams who want to push the boundaries of what is possible with technology.”

After pitching in World Cup 2018 in 2019, Wasim Akram, Muhammad Amir and Anil Kumble all suffered hair loss after shaving their heads.

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