Safety-Tethered Cricket Bails: Single-Thread Loop with Weighted Collar and Retainer Stop

This Defensive Publication discloses a safety mechanism for cricket wickets that prevents bails from flying off dangerously upon impact while maintaining full compliance with ICC Law 8.3.4. The design employs a freely moving, low-mass collar fitted onto the center stump, a single continuous tether looped around the collar and connected to both bails via snug O-rings, and fixed rubber-band retainers placed above (and optionally below) the collar. The collar’s gravity provides mild downward tension on the tether, keeping it taut and wind-stable, while allowing normal bail dislodgement when struck. The system installs on existing stumps and bails within one minute, requires no modification, and uses only non-metallic, shatterproof materials such as PVC, silicone, or polyester. It supports non-elastic or mildly elastic threads and functions reliably across turf and artificial pitches. This disclosure is released under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license to encourage open, global adoption and innovation in player safety. Submitted by the inventors’ legal guardians. This is Version 2.0 (Minor Revision) of the original publication [DOI:10.5281/zenodo.17284397], incorporating clarifications to the regulatory context (Law 8.3.4) and formatting updates.