Do you know about the sight screen in cricket? If you don’t know, you are in the right place. I will explain about sight screen in cricket. A batsman generally stops the bowler from delivering the ball and gestures to the umpire that he has a problem behind the boundary rope. Then the commenters in the com box say that something is wrong with the sight screen. But what is that sight screen in cricket? Why do they use it?
Cricket is not an easy game. Batsman has to face a circular object (known as the leather ball) at a very high velocity thrown by the bowler. But if a batter loses sight of the ball during batting, he is definitely in trouble; sometimes, the batter gets injured.
So watching the ball is one of the most crucial aspects while batting. But usually, a human being faces some issues when watching a ball that travels around 90 miles per hour speed. We need a clean background to see such high-velocity objects. So the clean background present in front of the batsman behind the boundary rope is known as sightscreen. Now we get into the deep of this topic, stick with me.
What Is Sight Screen In Cricket?
Sight Screen is a giant screen located on a cricket field directly behind the wickets beyond the boundary rope. It prevents distractions and makes it more comfortable for the batsman to recognize the leather cricket ball while batting. Generally, sight screens are built with two different parts. One was the frame which is made of wood or any other metal. Another one is the cloth which is attached to the frame and hung. However, some stadium managements use polycarbonate slots in place of fabric.
Use Of Sight Screen In Cricket
The batsman uses the sight screen in cricket to see the ball with high concentration without any distraction. Generally, A ball with a circumference of only 9 inches did throw towards a batter at a speed of 90 mph. It is highly challenging for a batter to see it as usual. We already discussed this at the beginning of this article. So batter desperately need the transparent background to see such cricket ball accurately. We all knew that spotting a black dot on a full white paper is more accessible than spotting a black dot on a different colored background. That is why a sight screen did place beyond the boundary rope in front of the batsman.
The full color of this sight screen in cricket should be the same while a batter is batting. Also, the spectators should not go either in front or near the sight screen because the batsman cannot concentrate properly on the ball if somebody moves near the sight screen in cricket. So no one must move in front of the sight screen beyond the boundary rope while the batter is ready to face the ball. If any disturbance occurs around the sight screen, the batsman immediately stops the bowler and complains to the umpire about the problem.
Color Of Sight Screen In Cricket
We already discussed that the color of the sight screen should be plain and the same all over the frame. However, each ground has two sight screens. One was in front of the batsman, and another one was behind the batsman. Because bowling is not always doing from the same end. The bowling end is changed for each over.
The sight screen is black in limited-overs cricket (ODI & T20) because the white ball looks great on a black background. The sight screen is white in Test cricket because a red or pink ball looks good on the white background. However, one sight screen uses batsman during the match, and another displays ads behind the wicket-keeper.
Size Of Sight Screen
When it comes to the size of this giant screen, there are no specific rules. The size of the sight screen varies from each ground. However, the bulk of sight screens you’ll see on local grounds are around 4.5 x 4.25 meters. But in professional cricket, the grounds are extensive, and the outfield is too long. So batsman needs a giant sight screen while playing significant cricket grounds like Melbourne Cricket Ground. So generally, the sight screens on international grounds are over 200 meters squared (36m x 6m).