Dubai . Women's T20 World Cup 2024 is starting from October 3. This will be the first ICC tournament where the smart replay system will be used. This technology has already been used in IPL 2024 and The Hundred.
The ICC said in its press release, “Each match will have coverage from a minimum of 28 cameras, which will be offered with a range of analytical and visualization enhancements. A Decision Review System (DRS) will be available in all matches, which will include hawk- The iSmart Replay system will be used to help the TV umpire make accurate decisions by instantly reviewing the footage coming in from different angles.”
Under the Smart Replay system, the TV umpire will receive information directly from two HawkEye operators, who will sit in the same room with the umpire and show him the footage captured by HawkEye's eight highspeed cameras installed on the field. Till now, TV broadcast directors acted as intermediaries between the third umpire and HawkEye operators. Now there will be no need for the mediation of the broadcasting director. The system also gives the TV umpire more visual visibility than ever before, including splitscreen.
Under the Smart Replay system, TV umpires can ask for splitscreen visuals from HawkEye operators in case of stumping referrals. Suppose that if there is a significant gap between the ball and the bat, the TV umpire will not ask for ultra edge (to see if it was caught out) and will instead check the sideon replay for straight stumping. If the TV umpire does not see a clear distance between the bat and the ball, only then will he check for ultra edge.
In case of stumping, the TV umpire will be shown trivision visuals under the Smart Review System. Footage from both the sideon camera and the fronton camera will be shown in the same frame. The fronton camera angle is important as it will give the exact time to remove the bales. Earlier, broadcasters used to show footage from sideon angles and stump cams from all sides. But the stump cam records the action at a slower speed of around 50 frames per second, while the HawkEye camera records the action at around 300 frames per second, meaning umpires will now have more accurate footage to make their decisions .
Another important thing in the context of umpiring is that this time the entire panel of umpires in the Women's T20 World Cup will be only women. Also, the match officials will also be women. This happened in the last T20 World Cup also.
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Image Credit: KhasKhabar.