It is widely believed bails were used in cricket in the pre-technology era to be sure the ball had hit the wicket. Manjrekar, and many other pundits, believe that given today’s technology, the bails can be done away with.
The LED bails currently in use light up the moment they lose contact with the rest of the wicket, which is also used as the instance the wicket was broken for purposes of checking run-outs and stumpings. If the bails were to be done away with, it shouldn’t be too difficult to have wickets that light up the moment they are touched.
“I’ve said this before as well, it’s redundant now with the LED stumps to have the bails on,” Manjrekar said on ESPNcricinfo’s T20 Time: Out. “Today it would’ve been a wicket deserving for Chahal who bowled superbly. It was a terrible shot from Warner, and it didn’t get a wicket. Unless it’s adding an aesthetic value, they should just get rid of the bails because they’re completely redundant with LED technology.”
“[The bails were used] just to be sure the ball has hit the stumps they had these bails on top, because if the ball just kissed the stumps you won’t know if there weren’t any bails,” Manjrekar said. “And the bails were meant to fall off if the stumps were disturbed. But now that you have a sensor, you know the ball has hit the stumps, so why are the bails there?”
“If you have the technology, don’t have the bails,” he said. “The other problem with bails is, when there is a stumping, you wait to light up to see if both stumps off the groove, so it adds a lot of complication when you’re judging stumps or run out. Just keep it simple.
“I know it won’t happen because we don’t like to change too many things. We tweak few other rules, but certain very obvious things aren’t done. Getting rid of bails may sound scandalous to lot of people but it defies common sense.”
“When you have clear evidence, why not,” he asked :”That’s what I believe in. We clearly saw it hit the stump, but the bails didn’t fall off and he survived, and he was riding on luck, because there was a dropped catch and then this. Maybe if they got a wicket there, it was a different story altogether. There should be some rules where if the ball hit the stumps and the LED glows, it should be given out.”