Yes that’s right, cricket stumps, I am going to write an article about cricket stumps! Purely because they just did a feature at lunch in the cricket on how they work. Admittedly the TV is muted and there are no subtitles so I don’t know anything about them, as the saying goes “a picture says a thousand words”. Lets see, the facts, there are 3 stumps at each end, each 28 inches tall. The gap between them is sensibly too small for the ball to pass through. On top are 2 bails, but this is off topic, maybe worthy of its own post?

Cricket has been played for hundreds and hundreds of years, the first official references dates back to 1550, however it is suspected that the sport runs back earlier. In the last 15 years, one of the stumps has changed. How I hear you desperately asking… blame TV, but they have hollowed out the middle stump and added a little camera. This is the easy bit, its running the cables under the ground to get the signal back to the van that seems tough. They just showed the groundsman / technician (this is where sound would have been helpful) cutting cable runs, and digging holes to hide the wires. All seemed like a lot of effort, is the view it offers worth it? You decide…