ICL kicks off today - Kerry Packer 2 ?

ICL kicks off today with Chandigarh Lions taking on Delhi Jats.

Jazzy television coverage is expected too - GPS devices being attached to players, displaying their heart-beat rates, body temperatures etc. A giant screen has been installed and disco-like arrangements have been set up on the stage.

Its high time some one spiced up cricket coverage on TV.

Here's some of my wacky ideas for spicing up cricket telecast on TV and cricket in general. Harsha Bhogle had suggested similar ideas on this topic before.

1. Identify the total yards/km covered by each batsmen running between the wickets.
2. Selectively mike-up the captain in crucial occasions to get his thoughts and strategy - ensure that opposition team does not have access to this. Only the viewers should get access to this feed.

Here's some of my ideas on spicing up cricket in general and use technology effectively to remove any possible human errors in influencing the outcome of the games. Sometimes it is really boring to watch the middle over in a 50 overs ODI game.

1. Like in National Football League (NFL) in USA, the batting and bowling team must be allowed certain number of challenges per innings (say max of 3) to challenge umpiring decisions which would be referred to the 3rd umpire with audio/video access. If the challenging team wins the challenge. they get to keep the challenge, otherwise they would lose the challenge.

• This will open up interesting strategies for the batting team to pick and choose when they should challenge. They may want to challenge bad decisions against top order batsmen only and not for decisions that go against tail enders.
  
• The same thing goes for the bowling team. They may want to challenge a tough catch, given not out by the umpires on the field and hope for conclusive video evidence available to get a decision in their favor. Same thing goes for which decision they challenge - who is the batsmen, etc.

2. The TV umpire shall overrule the decision on the field only in case of conclusive audio/visual evidence. If not, the ruling on the field should stand.

3. I also like the old super sub rule with a tweak. Have both teams name 12 players and play them whenever. The old super-sub rule was heavily favorable for the team winning the toss.

Comments welcome ...