Getting Tied-down with Health and Safety?

Orders being taken for Tethered bail-stump sets.

PTG Editor

Saturday, 30 September 2017.

PTG 2263-11455.

UK-based company ‘Augury Sports’ is taking orders for its tethered bail-stump system and expects to be in a position to commence delivery early next year.  A prototype tethered bail system made by the company was used for the first time at Lord’s in June during the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) Universities Challenge Final between the Cardiff and Loughborough campuses (PTG 2168-10997, 18 June 2017).  Such "mechanisms” are allowed under the new Laws Code as a safety measure provided they do not impinge on the normal ability of the fielding side to dislodge the bails (PTG 2102-10655, 12 April 2017).  

Augury’s system is reported to comprise two holes drilled down into the off and leg stumps, and a tiny, lightweight ball, attached to a piece of cotton (PTG 2103-10662, 13 April 2017). The ensemble rests on a platform, so that there is no weight pulling on the bail, which is then able to travel no further than eight centimetres when the stumps are put down.  The system is the brainchild of Gus Kennedy, a former wicketkeeper with both Cambridge and Oxford Universities.

The company is offering a package that contains six stumps and four bails that are expected to eventually cost around £UK120 ($A205) when purchased in sports stores in the UK. The pre-order price is though £UK100 ($A170) per set plus the cost of delivery. A normal set of stumps for a match usually costs around £UK60-70 ($A100-120).  What the arrangement is  with the Augury stumps is when, as not infrequently happens in games, a bail breaks, has not yet been made clear.  

In addition to Augury a person in South Africa, who has been described as an 'inventor', is also reported to have developed a system but no details of it are available.  The Marylebone Cricket Club, as the guardians of the game’s Laws, indicated earlier this year that it would not be approving any tethered system design that comes into the market place, rather that would be up to governing bodies or leagues.