KARACHI: The manufactures of the flashing Zing-bails have admitted that recent events — of bails not coming off the stump’s groove — have come as a surprise and they are looking into the reasons to make amends.

In an email, David Ligertwood, a director at Zing, said nothing has changed with the Zing system for years. However, a few years ago some modifications were made to make the bails dislodge more easily. Citing a women’s ODI recently in the UK, he said even wooden bails sometimes don’t come off. At times the impact is quite hard and they don’t come off.

“This issue isn’t all about the weight of the bails, as a complicated interdepend range of factors come into play. The bails (various factors), stumps (various factors), stumps grooves (depth and shape), pitch conditions (various factors), stump cam (various factors) etc all affect it. Testing shows bail’s weight isn’t necessary the most significant factor,” Ligertwood said

“The Zing wicket system has operated in well over a 1000 games and this issue has not happened frequently. The recent cluster currently has had us stumped,” the director added.

Keeping in view of the recent occurrences, Ligert­wood vowed to review all aspects for possible modification to the system.

“Zing is currently monitoring the situation, while reviewing all aspects and at the same time looking into whether there are some practical modifications that can be made in the future to make the bails come off easier”, Ligertwood said

“Competing interests do need to be balanced in this context. For example, the game doesn’t want the bails coming off too easily (making it difficult for umpires to place them without holding up play and meaning the wind may blow them off too often). And, for example, they need to not break”, the director concluded

The ongoing World Cup has already had five instances where the ball hitting or being edged into the stumps without the flashing electronic bails being removed.

Published in Dawn, June 13th, 2019