Channel 4 has revealed (he tech oology they believe will solve crickvt's on going mystery - the lbw decision.

'Hawk-Eye', which will first be •seen in operation by television viewers during the first Test against Pakistan in just under a fortnight, was launched at (he channel's London headquarters.

Invented by Dr Paul I lawkins, a minor county player, and using a mathematical computer model akin to those used in (he tracking ol missiles, it calculates the progress ol the ball had (he batsman not intervened.

Six digital cameras around (he boundary edge can (race (he course of each delivery, accounting for spin, swing, seam and bounce, to adjudge to within live millimetre accuracy.

I he margin for error has been k it so minimal (hat if'Hawk-Eye' shows that (he ball continued into (he slumps, it will have hit. A number of deliveries that it shows missing may have indeed hit but the percentage is so minimal that its accuracy remains at nigh-on 100 pc.

That means that for the first time the game will have a definitive answer to the recurring problem of 'was he in or out?'

Hawkins and colleagues at telecommunications company Roke Manor have spent (he last 12 months testing (heir product with thousands of deliveries monitored to be sure of its performance.

He even claimed that the course of Shane Warne's 'mystery ball' that bowled Mike Galling in the Ashes series eight summers ago would have been plotted by his tracking system.

"Accuracy and reliability were essential and we wanted to make sure we had got it right," he said. There has always been the debate as to whether (he ball that hits the pads will hit the stumps. Now we will have a much clearer idea."

What it cannot do, however, is adjudge whether a batsman has got an inside edge or was indeed playing a shot.

This will be left for the umpires lo decide and inventor Hawkins has revealed that pagers could provide the answers to whether the ball would hit the stumps within two or three seconds of appeals, thus avoiding a stop-start scenario.

The England and Wales Cricket Board are sure to monitor the situation amid suggestions that the new technology may, in fact, help with coaching youngsters to use their willows instead of pads against spinners.

Meanwhile, former Pakistan .captain Imran Khan and Australian duo Mark Taylor and lan Healy were announced as the latest additions to the channel's commentary (earn (his summer.