Front-foot tech gets the nod for women’s World Cup

CRICKET may finally have solved its no-ball problem after confirmation the women’s Twenty20 World Cup in Australia will be the first tournament to feature front-foot technology.

The third umpire will monitor the landing foot of bowlers after each ball and communicate to their on-field counterparts whether it was a legal delivery.

On-field umpires have been instructed by the International Cricket Council (ICC), which is satisfied with the standard of technology after recent trials in India and the West Indies, not to call any front-foot noballs unless advised by their colleague in the box.

It had already been the norm for third umpires to check whether a bowler overstepped after a wicket, but not after every ball.

There has been a widespread push for the change in recent years. Former New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum called on cricket’s governing body to hand all front-foot calls to the third umpire in 2016, when Doug Bracewell was incorrectly noballed after bowling Australia’s Adam Voges for seven. Voges went on to make a match-winning 239 in that Test.

Bowlers have also been miffed by how often they have been denied a wicket because a video replay picked up it was an illegal delivery, only to find umpires have missed a stack of preceding no-balls leading up to the dismissal.

“No-balls are difficult for umpires to call accurately, and even though the percentage of deliveries that are no-balls is low, it is important to call them correctly,” ICC general manager of cricket Geoff Allardice said. “I’m confident that this technology will reduce the small number of front-foot noball errors at the ICC women’s T20 World Cup.”

The technology was recently trialled during 12 games, with 4717 deliveries bowled and all judged accurately.