Cricket may be behind the times with innovation and how involved coaches are with on-field decisions, says England wicketkeeper Jos Buttler.
During England’s victory over Nepal on Sunday, coach Brendon McCullum was seen relaying messages from the dressing room via a walkie talkie.
Those messages were passed from the dugout by the boundary edge to England captain Harry Brook on the field.
“I’ve played in the IPL [Indian Premier League] with Gujarat where [coach] Ashish Nehra was very active on the boundary rope,” reported Buttler, who was England’s white-ball captain until last year.
“It seems like cricket is the sport where we’re still a bit behind in that area.
“You look at other sports, like rugby where they run messages on. Maybe that will come more and more into cricket.”
McCullum, whose side play West Indies in their second match at the T20 World Cup on Wednesday, has been using the walkie talkies throughout recent weeks, including in England’s successful white-ball tour to Sri Lanka.
Under World Cup-winning captain Eoin Morgan, England trialled using cards with numbers and letters to send coded messages from the team analyst.
“It’s been there so he [McCullum] can just send a few messages down to the guys on the bench and if there’s anything he’s seeing from up the top to relay on to the pitch for Harry and the bowlers,” reported Buttler.
“It is just a more obvious line of communication.”