AI decision review system being trialled in Darwin women's division one cricket competition

Darwin's premier women's cricket league has become the first Australian grade competition to use an artificial intelligence (AI) umpire review system.

During the opening rounds of the 2026 Darwin division one season, players have been able to challenge leg before wicket (LBW) decisions through the Fulltrack AI system.

It operates via a high-resolution camera strapped to an umpire’s chest, delivering a decision on whether the tracked delivery would have hit the stumps.

The system is being trialled for 12 months. It draws from recordings of around one million other balls bowled to calculate the approximate trajectory of the delivery.

Fulltrack AI co-founder and chief executive Arjun Verma said the system used a mix of models to make a decision.

"We [use] a 2D ball detection model [combined] with a physics model and use that to extract a full 3D ball track," he said.

Mr Verma said the ball-tracking wasn't quite as accurate as the multi-camera systems used in international cricket and tennis, which triangulate the position of a ball using up to 16 cameras.

But he said for a fraction of the cost, local leagues around the world were picking up the AI technology "to get rid of that grumpy Sunday cricketer".

"The average club cricketer is grumpier than you might think and thinks they're not out more often than they actually are," he said.

"About 85 per cent of the time, even at the club level, we are reinforcing the umpire's decision."

Players keen to contest decisions

Each women's division one team will get two challenges per innings.

Captain of PINT, Amy Yates, said even if there was a tiny chance of reversing a decision that denied her a wicket or gave her out, she would take it.

"As a batter, you only get one chance each week," she said

"If you can actually get a chance to review it, it's going to go a long way, because cricket can be a harsh game."

Coach of PINT's men's side, Will Glover, said the data provided by the platform had been useful from a coaching perspective, and he believed it "wasn't far off" being trialled in men's games.

"I was a little sceptical at first, how it would work in game settings, but the actual data we've received back [has] been awesome," he said.

"Being able to get really accurate pitch maps has been really beneficial for our bowling group, and also getting up close with our batters has been good."

NT looking to attract umpires

All but one of the Top End women's teams have agreed to participate in the trial, with Nightcliff Cricket Club opting out.

"The trial required a significant financial commitment from the club that we ultimately deemed not to be the best use of club resources," Nightcliff president Josh Smith said.

NT Cricket's head of clubs and competitions, Karl Mayne, said the trial aimed to eliminate perceptions of bias in games, some of which players and coaches had to umpire themselves.

"We thought trialling it in those games which were self-umpired would help provide some independence to decision making, and maybe quell some arguments and conflicts," he said.

Mr Mayne said having checks around decision-making might also attract new umpires to the game.

"I imagine there's a fair subsection out in the community that might not be umpires because they're afraid or apprehensive about making the wrong decision, so a tool like this can alleviate some of that," he said.

Despite there being no plans to extend the trial to the men's competition, club leagues in other states were watching the women's trial with interest.

"We've certainly had some people from Cricket Australia and other premier competitions to say 'hey, this is interesting," Mr Mayne said.

"I think we're ahead of the game, and there'll be lots of eyes on what we do."

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