Umpire’s toolkit: Some of the most commonly used devices by umpires

#3 The Umpire light meter

This is one device a cricket viewer would not like to see. This device is called the light meter and is used to check the lighting levels in the field. The umpire generally stands in the middle of the field and points this device in all the directions to see if the conditions are suitable to play.

The device uses photo-voltaic sensors to measure light. The photovoltaic sensors produce a voltage corresponding to the amount of light. If bad light stops play, it means that the light meter has shown a value of around 3.5. However, this is just an indicative value and the final call is taken by the umpire. There is no hard and fast rule regarding the light meter value and till today it has been a subject of debate.