Sydney (IANS) : Now cricket fans can enjoy the game through the eyes of the umpires. Specially designed sunglasses for umpires will now act as cameras and will be used Wednesday night at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) for Fox Sports coverage of the Big Bash Twenty20.

The specially designed sunglasses are worth $100 and were invented by Brisbane-based Patrick Gerry. The glasses were trialled in Brisbane lower-grade cricket for 12 months and were also used secretly on a trial basis during some of the Big Bash matches.

The glasses are fitted with a micro high-definition camera about the size of a pea that is wired to a bigger battery, a transmitter and an aerial, which is kept in a pouch on the umpire’s belt. Eventually it will go wireless.

Fox Sports has spent more than $100,000 on improving the camera quality for the sunglasses and are also investing a huge amount on the world-first technology, including trials with a 75cm remote-controlled helicopter carrying a tiny camera. The chopper-cam will hover above the players and transmit live pictures but insurance and health and safety issues have delayed its launch.

But Fox Sports officials feel that the sunglass cameras will change the way the game is viewed all over the world.

The new sunglass cameras will allow the TV viewers get the best possible angle for LBW appeals and run outs. Sound is also available but umpires have requested the network’s officials for the microphones to be muted for live play.

Fox Sports chief executive Patrick Delaney and new director of sport Gary Burns are at the helm of this innovative drive.

“We’re here to create entertainment that’s worth paying for. They’ve got to see the ball and Shane Warne’s hands as he delivers it,” Delaney was quoted as saying by The Herald Sun.

Burns said Cricket Australia (CA) will use some of the footage for reviews and appeals in the future.

“It’s brilliant stuff. Our viewers are going to love it. We’ve already got some great shots from the testing with (Perth Scorchers) Brad Hogg appealing and pleading with the umpire. It’s taking our viewers closer to the action than ever before,” he said.

Lahore (ANI) : Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chief Chaudhry Zaka Ashraf has revealed that PCB will launch its own Premier League soon which will be bigger than the Indian Premier League.

Zaka Ashraf said that Pakistan players would now play their own league, which the PCB was aiming to launch soon instead of participating in the IPL.

“We will talk to major sponsor companies to come forward and select their teams for this grand league of the country and I hope it will be much better than the IPL. It will also attract maximum number of cricket lovers and provide them opportunity to witness their players in action at their own home grounds,” he said.

“I was appointed as the PCB chief to boost and promote cricket across the country and it is my sole aim and I am striving hard to achieve my aim by revival of international cricket and added I will provide our national players all the best available facilities,” The Nation quoted Zaka Ashraf, as saying.

He further said that he just now had three or four months in the board and gradually he would bring healthy changes for the betterment in the board working.

Zaka Ashraf also vowed to follow the vision and policies of the deceased former PCB chairman purely for the promotion of the game.

Karachi (ANI) : The initial discussions between the Pakistan Cricket Board’s selection committee and the team management suggests no major changes are likely to take place in the country’s squad for the series against England.

Pakistan will play three Tests, three Twenty20s and four One-Day Internationals in the United Arab Emirates.

“Both parties are reluctant against making wholesale changes to the squad given the performance. They don’t want to tweak the winning combination and showed mutual consent in continuing without major changes,” The Express Tribune quoted a source, as saying.

The official added that the PCB might include new faces in the squad for the series.

“There have been talks of giving the Quaid Trophy performers a chance,” he said

The squad will be named at the end at the end of Pakistan’s tour of Bangladesh.