These days so much of cricket is being played, that people have lost interest in the game.  Many a times it happens that once we switch on  the televison set we see a cricket match going on.  With the amount of replays of matches being shown, one does not know if one is seeing a live match or a recorded one.  Only after watching the match continuously for about 10 minutes, one gets to know whether the match being telecast is a live match or a recorded one. Too much cricket is one of the reasons why the game has lost its charm.

However one has to compliment statisticians who with the aid of modern technology have managed to retain the charm of the game.  Some modern day innovations which have really given lot of  fun and excitement to millions of viewers  are:-

Recording Speed of a Fast Bowlers:- We were always told that by our elders that bowlers in the eras gone by like the famous quartet of Malcolm Marshall, Michael Holding, Joel Garner and Andy Roberts   used to be very  fast and batsmen who played in those era were very scared of them. Same thing was said of Dennis Lille and Jeff Thomson.   However one really does not know as to how fast those bowlers were because those days they were no machines those days to record those speeds.  One of the greatest advancement in technology in modern era is use of speed guns to monitor speeds of bowler.  This really thrills the bowler.  When a Michael Holding bowled fast in an earlier era, nobody was thrilled because one never knew whether he bowled at 85 miles per hour or at 95 miles per hour.  However these days when a Brett Lee bowls at 98 miles per hour millions of viewers get excited when they see the speed recorded shown on their television sets.  Even if one misses it on television, the data is recorded by statistics for viewing on net at a later time or at a time convenient time to us. This information also helps in classification as to who is a fast bowler and who is medium space while earlier one used to guess by looks who was fast and who was not.

Speed of Bat:- Another area of improvement is recording the speed at which the batsman has hit the ball.  This is another thing which excites the viewers.  Bat Speed is not as regularly recorded or displayed as is the case with bowling speeds as this is a recent innovation. In the coming years we are going to have speed of bat recorded as often as the speed of a bowler.

Distance of a Sixer:- Another recent innovation is recording the distance of a six.  The moment one sees a display of six being hit 105m it excites the viewers.  The technology seems to be more advanced in this case as  this is recorded as often as bowlers speed

One really has to compliment the modern day technology and information systems for bringing in these innovations in retaining the charm of the game. The data provided by advancement in technology not only is of interest to millions of viewers in the current generation, but would also be of great help to the future generation who would be fortunate enough to have this data.  The current generation are deprived of information relating to previous era, but future generation definitely will have access to information of our generation thanks to the optimum use of advanced technological skills in cricket.

Regards

Satish