Front-foot no ball technology will be used for the first time in a global cricket tournament later this month at the women's T20 World Cup in Australia, the International Cricket Council (ICC) announced on Monday. The television umpire will monitor the landing position of the front foot after every ball and tell the on-field umpires if a bowler oversteps. Umpires have often had to call back batsmen in recent years following TV replays which have revealed no balls. But the ICC said recent trials in India and the West Indies of using a TV official for every ball resulted in 100 percent of 4,717 deliveries being judged accurately.
"The third umpire will monitor the front foot landing position after each ball and communicate to the on-field umpire if the delivery was a no ball," the ICC said in a statement.
"Cricket has an excellent track record of introducing technology to support the decision making of our match officials and I'm confident that this technology will reduce the small number of front foot no ball errors at the ICC Women's T20 World Cup," said ICC general manager Geoff Allardice.
"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."
"Since we first trialed this concept in the ODI series between England and Pakistan in 2016 the technology has improved significantly, enabling us to introduce it cost-effectively, and with minimum impact on the flow of the game," he added
The women's T20 World Cup runs from February 21 until March 8.