W o W - Week of Words - June 2009

This section covers the certain words related to Cricket.

The “W o W” word Bodyline (noun): A tactic (now suppressed by law changes restricting fielders on the leg side) involving bowling directly at the batsman's body, particularly with close fielders packed on the leg side. The term "Bodyline" is usually used to describe the contentious 1932-33 Ashes Tour. Also known as fast leg theory, Bodyline was a cricketing tactic devised by the English cricket team for their 1932–33 Ashes tour of Australia, specifically to combat the extraordinary batting skill of Australia's Don Bradman. A Bodyline bowler aimed the cricket ball at the leg stump of the opposing batsman, in the hope of creating leg side deflections that could be caught by one of several fielders in the quadrant of the field behind square leg.

The “W o W” word Hawk-Eye (noun): Hawk-Eye is the computer system used in cricket, tennis and other sports to visually track the path of the ball and display a record of its actual path as graphic image. In some sports, it is now part of the adjudication process. It is also able to predict the future path of a ball. It was developed by engineers at Roke Manor Research Limited of Romsey, Hampshire in the UK, in 2001. It shows where a bowler has bowled on the pitch and on what line and length is he playing. The different runs scored off a ball is shown in different colors. All Hawk-Eye systems are based on the principles of triangulation using the visual images and timing data provided by at least four high speed video cameras located at different locations and angles around the area of play. The system rapidly processes the video feeds by a high speed video processor and ball tracker. A data store contains a predefined model of the playing area and includes data on the rules of the game. The technology was first used by Channel 4 during a Test match between England and Pakistan on Lord's Cricket Ground, on 21 May 2001. It is used primarily by the majority of television networks to track the trajectory of balls in flight. In the winter season of 2008/2009 the ICC trialed a referral system where Hawkeye was used for referring decisions to the third umpire if a team disagreed with an LBW decision. The third umpire was able to look at what the ball actually did up to the point when it hit the batsman, but could not look at the predicted flight of the ball after it hit the batsman.

The “W o W” word Sticky Wicket: A difficult wet pitch. Describes a pitch, which although dry on the surface, has underlying soft patches. This type of wicket is generally a difficult playing surface for batsman as it can cause a ball to behave unpredictably. Most pitch preparation practices have all but done away with these type of pitches, which were once very common in England and Australia.

The “W o W” word Mankaded: A mode of dismissal named after former Indian cricketer Vinoo Mankad. In the 2nd test match of India's tour of Australia in 1947, Mankad ran out Bill Brown when, in the act of delivering the ball, he held on to it and whipped the bails off with Brown well out of his crease. This was the second time Mankad had dismissed Brown, the earlier occasion being a first class match on the same tour. Instances of bowlers running batsmen out this way in first class cricket date back to the nineteenth century. But after this incident, if a batsman is given out this way, he is said to have been Mankaded.The Laws of cricket have changed since, so that a bowler may no longer Mankad a batsman once he has entered into his delivery stride.
The “W o W” word Duckworth-Lewis method: A mathematically based rule that derives a target score for the team batting second in a one-day cricket or Twenty-20 cricket match interrupted by weather or other circumstance. It is generally accepted to be a fair and accurate method of setting a target score, but as it attempts to predict what would have happened had the game come to its natural conclusion, it generates some controversy. The D/L method was devised by two English statisticians, Frank Duckworth and Tony Lewis. The essence of the D/L method is 'resources'. Each team is taken to have two 'resources' to use to make as many runs as possible: the number of overs they have to receive; and the number of wickets they have in hand. Looking at historical scores, there is a very close correspondence between the availability of these resources and a team's final score, a correspondence which D/L exploits. Using a published table which gives the percentage of these combined resources remaining for any number of overs (or, more accurately, balls) left and wickets lost, the target score can be adjusted up or down to reflect the loss of resources to one or both teams when a match is shortened one or more times. This percentage is then used to calculate a target (sometimes called a 'par score') that is usually a fractional number of runs.