Dr Paul Hawkins, Hawk-Eye inventor
At the beginning of the year much was written expressing concern that Hawk-Eye being used as an LBW aid for umpires would lead to shorter Test matches. Whilst it is too early to provide statistically significant evidence to disprove this, early signs would suggest it won't.
Many appeals this summer have been given in favour of the bowlers; appeals for LBWs which Hawk-Eye has shown to be going over the top of the stumps. This article tries to explain why this is happening
The graphic (above left) shows the ball which dismissed Michael Atherton from the red zone viewpoint. From this (i.e. the umpire's view) we are looking down at the trajectory of the ball making it appear as if the ball would go on to hit the stumps.
However, if we compare this with the same ball viewed at stump level (above right), which is at a significantly lower angle, it is clear to see that the ball will actually going on to pass over the top on the stumps.
This is relevant because during our Hawk-Eye testing before the summer, we found that people could more accurately determine how high the ball would pass the stumps if they were sitting down rather than standing in the conventional umpiring position.
It won't come as any consolation at all to Atherton that he has been out many times to McGrath playing at balls he could have left. Whilst I'm sure he feels he should have played at the ball which got him in the first innings at Lord's, our exclusive analysis shows he should still be there taking the fight to the Australians.
And one final point for the remaining sceptics: the ball which Atherton was out to pitched 8.01 meters from the stumps. The ball which hit the top of Mark Ramprakash's stumps late on the first day pitched 6.67 meters from the stumps, which meant it had less chance to rise by the time it reached his wicket; the ball which dismissed Atherton LBW did, and while he may be considered unfortunate, Hawk-Eye clearly demonstrates why the umpire felt he had to give him out.
Click the Launch Hawk-Eye button at the top of this page to do your own interactive anlysis of the battle between Glenn McGrath and Mike Atherton.
20 Jul, 2001
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