Southampton – Horrendous Panic!
Scoring with the media in early July saw me safely ensconced in splendid surroundings at The Ageas Bowl, with the England-Pakistan women playing their T20 before England’ s men took on their Sri Lankan counterparts. England’ s women, having won all their games to date against Pakistan with something to spare, really struggled in this game. They mustered just 138-7 and the visitors had a real chance.
Sadly, they fluffed their lines from the very first ball, when opener Sidra Amin had a wild mow at Kathryn Brunt and skied a catch to the keeper. The batters managed to run one before the ball was caught, and Amin trudged off … only to be told to wait as the umpires were checking the no ball. Lo and behold, Brunt had overstepped by some margin, so Amin returned, and myself, the official scorers, TV and Internet sites all recorded two runs.
The game muddled along until the 11th over when I noticed the scoreboard had changed, with one less run on the total. A mistake? I hoped it might be, except that it remained one behind what I reckoned the total to be – and there is no worse feeling as a scorer when the total is out! Eventually, I found that we had all come a cropper over an obscure ICC regulation which deems that, in the event of a dismissal that transpires to have occurred from a no ball, only the no ball shall be added to the total and no runs to the batsman – even though, in the case above, the batters had changed ends!
Spare a thought for the official scorers, who were informed of this by the match referee in the middle of the 10th over, just as two wickets fell in six balls …. and imagine our relief when Pakistan were all out for 103, some way short of the required total!
Nottingham – A Chance to Rewrite History
I watched on TV as England’ s men continued their fabulous one-day form, hammering Pakistan in the third ODI. You may recall that Alex Hales broke the record for the highest score by an England batsman in an ODI, and England went on to set a new world total by a single run – a magnificent 444-3.
However, during Hales’ epic innings, he was caught on the deep square boundary – only to be recalled when it was discovered that this occurred off a no ball. Hales and Joe Root had crossed whilst the ball was sailing towards the fielder who caught it, and when I saw this happening, I recalled the Southampton incident above and assumed that there would only be one run added. However, the scoreboard added two, and stayed with this.
Surely this was a mistake? Was I the only person who’ d spotted this, and would I thus be the one to stop the celebrations of the world-record achievement by pointing out England’ s total should only be 443? In short – no! A couple of emails later I discovered that, although I was perfectly correct in one sense, as the umpires were trialling the‘ no ball instant notification’ system( via a smartwatch) then this regulation was not being enforced. So my potential moment in the cricketing spotlight was dashed!
Loughborough – A Glimpse into the Future of Scoring?
Some of you will know that each year the ECB arranges the‘ Super 4s’ competition at Loughborough, which pits the best under-17 talent from across the UK against each other, as four teams play a round-robin tournament during the week, with the top two teams playing a final and the other two playing a third and fourth place game.
This year’ s games were played out in the main in glorious hot weather – the only time I’ ve had to use my umbrella to keep the sun off! – apart from finals day, when a bright-ish start was as good as it got. Cloud and gloom gathered and the rain, which started during the lunch interval of both matches, never relented, forcing two abandonments.
However, the final, played on the main Haslegrave Ground at the Loughborough complex, became noteworthy for me for an unexpected reason. Haslegrave boasts a large electronic scoreboard which the scorers operate, but on the day of the final, despite repeated efforts, no-one could get the jolly thing working! We tried and tried, Loughborough staff couldn’ t help, even one of the scorers who had operated the board during the week couldn’ t help when we rang him.
There was no manual board available, so in the end there was nothing for it – the game started with no scoreboard. An electrical fault was the cause, it transpired.
All was not lost, though. My fellow scorer Jan Herbert used her TCS live score to enable the many parents and families watching to follow the game via their devices, and as it happened, it worked very well. The players and umpires were kept informed, and although we went on to suffer the aforementioned premature ending, it got me thinking. So many clubs struggle for decent scoreboards; vandalism and malfunction are often the reasons. Perhaps the future at club level may look a lot more like a basic scoreboard( showing runs, wickets, overs and last innings) with spectators able to follow the detailed scorecard via their phones?
Although it would represent a big break with tradition, for clubs struggling to afford the cost of new boards, perhaps it would be worth investing instead in properly equipping their scorers with training, suitable equipment, a live scores licence, and the ground with a suitable wireless network …. it would certainly be way cheaper than the cost of a big new board.
Food for thought during the winter months!
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