My Turn as Electronic Scorer

Up until recently, anything other than a manual scoreboard in the Caribbean would have been thought of as out of this planet. Then along comes the ICC Cricket World Cup 2007, and all grounds -? new and old -? are having to move into the 21st century, in order to meet ICC regulations.

The Jamaicans were introduced to this "novelty" for the first ODIs against India, and in St Kitts, spectators won't know any other system but electronic since it was their first international match.

Trinidad, ahead of the pack in the region, had an electronic scoreboard prior to the 2006 Digicel Home series against Zimbabwe and India. But unreliability resulted in it having to be replaced this year.

Enter the Venus 1500 scoring system. Two scoreboards have been installed at the eastern and western ends of the Queen's Park Oval. The difference between what was seen on the board in Jamaica and here is because installation of the system here has been only partially completed.

Sheldon Narinesingh is General Manager of the company which installed the system, supplied by Daktronics, Inc. "Stands are still being built; they are still doing construction. When the major construction is done on the stands, then the equipment for the video board will be purchased and installed. Moving them around could cause unnecessarily damage. To come is a video board to show replays and a statistical board," he said in an interview with CaribbeanCricket.com.

The system is operated by a scorer, located in this ground in the Media Centre. Before the start of play, the operator types in the names of the eleven from the sheet supplied by the Media Officer. This sheet also includes the shirt number of each player, necessary to identify the unfamiliar players from the visiting team.

As the game progresses, information on batsmen, bowlers, runs, extras, wickets and such the like is entered on the computer. Because the system is not fully operational, dot balls do not have to be entered, since the "run rate" and "run rate required" is not calculated ball-by-ball as it was in Jamaica. At the end of an over, the operator clicks the "Over" button which then updates these two statistics. The system in its present state does not make note of maidens bowled.

There is a "+" button for extras, wides and no-balls, and a "bye" button to record leg byes and byes. If a mistake is made entering the amount of runs taken, the operator has to manually change the score total.

The operation of the Venus system seemed simple. Andrew was my guide and when I asked him if one needs to know how to score manually, he said "not really. You just need to know about the rules of the game." After receiving the theory during the innings break, it was time to see Venus in operation as the Indians started their reply, chasing a target of 256 to win.

First the opening Indian batsmen had to be selected. Usually it's R Dravid and V Sehwag, but the body profile of one of them had Andrew looking in his binoculars and then checking the shirt number against his sheet. It is Robin Uthappa. We are seeing him for the first time in this series. From a drop down menu, his name is clicked and the "OK" button is pressed.

Now for the opening West Indies bowler. Ian Bradshaw is not playing so Andrew surmises it must be either Jerome Taylor or Corey Collymore. Wrong again. It's Wavell Hinds and in his first over, third ball to be exact, Andrew has to click the red "OUT" button beside Uthappa's name.

During Jerome Taylor's first over, the operator did not have much to do. Remember there is no entering of dot balls. Taylor bowled five, and a no-ball, so "+" was the only click Andrew had to do until the end of the over came.

My turn to try. Yes, my turn. This was during Wavell Hinds' fourth over. First ball to Dhoni. Out! Click on the red. Look on the television to see the close-up of the player coming in next. The sheet, in terms of batting order, had now become redundant. It is Dravid. Go to drop down menu, select "R Dravid", click "OK." Dot, dot, dot, dot as Dravid gets settled. Then Hinds bowls a wide ball. Click "+" to record the extra. The next ball is also a dot ball. Then it's over. "OVER".

When I leave, Andrew gets very busy as India pick up the pace with, first Sehwag and Dravid and then Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh making merry. But here comes the Tadpole. Dave Mohammed to Yuvraj Singh. The ball clips the bails. That's "OUT" and "OVER".

Welcome to the First World of technology ? one of the legacies of the Caribbean's hosting of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2007.