Snickometer, commonly known as Snicko, is a system used in

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by st ...

to determine whether the ball edged the bat, for a potential dismissal such as a catch or

leg before wicket Leg before wicket (lbw) is one of the ways in which a batsman can be dismissed in the sport of cricket. Following an appeal by the fielding side, the umpire may rule a batter out lbw if the ball would have struck the wicket but was instead in ...

. It does this by showing a frame-by-frame replay of the footage of the ball passing the bat alongside a

waveform In electronics, acoustics, and related fields, the waveform of a signal is the shape of its graph as a function of time, independent of its time and magnitude scales and of any displacement in time.David Crecraft, David Gorham, ''Electro ...

displaying the soundwave of an

oscilloscope An oscilloscope (informally a scope) is a type of electronic test instrument that graphically displays varying electrical voltages as a two-dimensional plot of one or more signals as a function of time. The main purposes are to display repetiti ...

connected to a sensitive microphone near the

stumps In cricket, the stumps are the three vertical posts that support the bails and form the wicket. ''Stumping'' or ''being stumped'' is a method of dismissing a batsman. The umpire ''calling stumps'' means the play is over for the day. Part of t ...

. The newer version currently in use is called Real Time Snickometer (RTS) and does not need to be manually synchronized for every piece of footage, making the process much faster. It was initially used for the broadcast team to attempt to determine whether the ball hit the bat and therefore if the umpire gave the correct decision. It is now also used for DRS reviews when the third umpire needs to determine whether the ball hit the bat, such as for when a ball is caught behind and the batsman might have edged the ball, or in the case of

, where the batsman is not out lbw if the ball has hit the bat (or glove) before it hit their body. It is used for this purpose in tandem with Hot Spot. It was invented by English computer scientist Allan Plaskett in the mid-1990s. The snickometer was introduced by

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...

in the UK, who also introduced the

Hawk-Eye Hawk-Eye is a computer vision system used in numerous sports such as cricket, tennis, Gaelic football, badminton, hurling, rugby union, association football and volleyball, to visually track the trajectory of the ball and display a profile of ...

and the Red Zone, in 1999.

Uses

The Snickometer is used in a

slow motion Slow motion (commonly abbreviated as slo-mo or slow-mo) is an effect in film-making whereby time appears to be slowed down. It was invented by the Austrian priest August Musger in the early 20th century. This can be accomplished through the use ...

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

replay by the third umpire or broadcasters to determine if the

cricket ball A cricket ball is a hard, solid ball used to play cricket. A cricket ball consists of a cork core wound with string then a leather cover stitched on, and manufacture is regulated by cricket law at first-class level. The trajectory of a cric ...

touched the

cricket bat A cricket bat is a specialised piece of equipment used by batters in the sport of cricket to hit the ball, typically consisting of a cane handle attached to a flat-fronted willow-wood blade. It may also be used by a batter who is making groun ...

. The soundwave appears next to the slow motion, frame by frame replay. If there is a sound of leather on willow, which is usually a short sharp sound producing a sharp waveform, in synchrony with the ball passing the bat, then the ball is deemed to have hit the bat. If the spike on the waveform comes too late or early, it is determined that the spike was not caused by the ball hitting the bat. Other sounds such as the ball hitting the batsman's pads, or the bat hitting the pitch, and so on, tend to have a less sharp shape on the sound

, so it can be determined with some accuracy what contact made the sound. When the

Decision Review System The Decision Review System (DRS), formerly known as the Umpire Decision Review System (UDRS), is a technology-based system used in cricket to assist the match officials in their decision-making. On-field Umpire (cricket), umpires may choose to co ...

(DRS) was introduced to test cricket, initially Snicko was not considered accurate enough, and so another edge detecting tool Hot Spot was used. In 2013, an improved Snicko called the Real Time Snickometer, which was more reliable and faster to use, was used for first time for DRS in the 2013-14 Ashes series.

Drawbacks

The system relies on users to tell the difference between a contact between bat and ball, and other contact which has a more flat waveform such as bat on pad or ball on pad. It is easier to tell where the ball contacted precisely with Hot Spot, but that system has the disadvantage of needing a clear angle, which is sometimes obstructed by a fielder or umpire.

Notes

References

External links

BBG Sports, sports technology company

The science behind Snicko
{{Cricket equipment Cricket equipment Cricket terminology Sports officiating technology

Uses

Drawbacks

See also

Notes

References

External links