The Zing bails have been a part of international cricket for a decade now, but debate continues over whether they are too heavy and relatively difficult to dislodge. Does cricket need a change to the "wickets broken" law?
Steve Smith turned back alarmed, wondering if the ball had made its way to the stumps. An inside edge, off Axar Patel, had trickled through, the ball rolled onto the stumps, but the bails did not move. It was a lucky reprieve one-third into a crucial semi-final knock at the Champions Trophy; then on 23, he went on to score fifty more.
The all-too-stubborn Zing bails had refused to move, another addition to a growing list of such instances in recent times.
Before the boundary-count law took over in the final, it was one of the fieriest debates of the 2019 World Cup. David Warner, Quinton de Kock, Chris Gayle, among others, were the beneficiaries of what was once an extremely rare phenomenon: ball touches stumps, bails don’t fall.
Naturally, questions were raised on the weight of the LED bails. That these carried microprocessors inside made many wonder if the spigots were too heavy, but the ICC insisted the weight lay somewhere between a traditional bail, and the extra heavy ones used during high winds.
The advantages of the Zing bail
For the longest time, cricket hadn’t progressed (or was prepared to progress) beyond the traditional setup of two small sticks over three bigger wooden sticks. They were uncomplicated and mostly effective, but with a litany of added cameras and hyper-scrutinisation of every decision, it felt archaic to rely on the umpire’s understanding of a dislodged bail in the event of a close run-out or stumping.
Zing bails came in like a funky revolution, illuminating within 1/1000th of a second when the spigots came off their grooves. It gave a more visual meaning to a dislodged bail, making it clear for the decision-makers and viewers when the first point of dislodging is.
The laws, and the Zing problem
According to Law 29.1, a wicket is broken when “at least one bail is completely removed from the top of the stumps, or one or more stumps is removed from the ground.”
29.2.2 adds: “The disturbance of a bail, whether temporary or not, shall not constitute its complete removal from the top of the stumps, but if a bail in falling lodges between two of the stumps this shall be regarded as complete removal.”
The disturbance of the bail (but not its removal) became a point of contention during the 2019 World Cup when there were at least five such 'bowled' instances in the first 13 matches.
The same year, speaking to Sportstar, the Zing International director David Ligertwood said: "The Zing wicket system has operated in well over a thousand games and this issue has not happened frequently. The recent cluster currently has us stumped”.
"This issue is obviously important as the game wants batsmen being dismissed when they should be. But even with this unusual spate of bails not falling it remains definitive and it remains the same for both sides," he added.
What can be changed?
From a laws point of view, a reasonable change could be affected in the “dislodged bail” clause. The balls hitting the stumps and the bails lighting up should be evidence enough for it to be deemed out, without the bail(s) having to be completely out of their groove. It’s what Yuzvendra Chahal endorsed when David Warner got a reprieve off his bowling during IPL 2022.
If the weight of the bails isn’t an issue, another possible solution, physically, could be to have shallower grooves for the bail to fall off easier.
A different issue during the 2025 Women’s Premier League prompted a rule change midway through the tournament. The bails were seen to be lighting up even with very slight disturbance, sometimes even before the spigots had completely come off the groove. Consequently, teams were informed that only when the bails were completely dislodged would a run-out or stumping hold, and not based on when the bails light up.
To counter both issues, a much simpler change would be to end the “dislodged bail” discussion altogether, and equate ball hitting stumps to wicket broken. There’s a provision for it already: when it’s windy and the bails are forced to be taken off, stumps hit equals wicket broken.
The Zing bails can continue to be used as an effective method to check the exact moment a run-out or a stumping occurs.
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