Incricket, thestumps are the three vertical posts that support the bails and form thewicket.Stumping orbeing stumped is a method of dismissing a batsman.
The umpirecalling stumps means the play is over for the day.
Thestumps are three vertical posts which support twobails.[1] The stumps and bails are usually made of wood, most commonlyash,[2] and together form awicket at each end of thepitch.
The overall width of each wicket is 9 inches (22.9 cm). Each stump is 28 inches (71.1 cm) tall with maximum and minimum diameters of 11⁄2 inches (3.81 cm) and 13⁄8 inches (3.49 cm). They have a spike at one end for inserting into the ground, and the other end has a U-shaped'through groove' to provide a resting place for the bails.[3] In junior cricket the items have smaller dimensions.
Each stump is referred to by a specific name:
These names are relative to the batsman, so a right-handed batsman's leg stump becomes the off stump when a left-handed player is batting.
In modern professional play, the stumps are often branded with a sponsor's logo. Although they are too far away from spectators to be seen, such logos are visible on television coverage.
For professional matches, often one or more of the stumps is hollow and contains a small television camera. This is aligned vertically, but can view through a small window on the side of the stump via a mirror. The so-calledstump-cam gives a unique view of play for action replays, particularly when a batsman is bowled.
A recent innovation are stumps and bails embedded with redLEDs, which flash when they are completely dislodged. Invented by an Australian engineer and trademarked as "LED Bails", they were designed to aid umpires with both run-out and stumping decisions as well as provide distinctive images to television coverage duringday-night matches. LED stumps were first used at the2014 ICC World T20, and have since become commonplace in major white-ball matches like ODIs or franchise T20 leagues.[7] They have also been used in day/night Test matches.
Stumps are very important in the game of cricket as they determine when thewicket is "put down". The instant the bails are dislodged from the top of the stumps, the wicket is put down (there are other ways in which a wicket can be put down if the bails have already been removed).
Stumps is also used as a term to mean the end of a day's play, e.g. "The umpires called stumps" means that theumpires have declared that play is over for the day. At the end of a session, i.e. before lunch or tea, the umpires will remove thebails; at the end of the day's play, the umpires will also remove the stumps.[10]
