In a recent move, Cricket Australia slapped a ninety days ban on its fast bowler Aaron Bird on the charge of illegal bowling action. In another move, International cricket council, in association with Marylebone Cricket Club has cracked down heavily on the illegal bowling practices. The guardians of cricket have now decided to import wearable technology in cricket to find out whether or not a bowler has resorted to illegal throwing acts during delivery.

ICC and MCC will be jointly funding a Griffith University project for the development of a wearable, real-time electronic sensor to record and monitor the bowling action during delivery. Some of the Australia’s elite sporting bodies are also involved in the project. So what is this small electronic device going to achieve? Let’s explain.

This sensor device is designed in a way that it will be able to assess the legality of the action of a bowler in real time. It would simply measure the degree of elbow extension of the bowler during the time of his arm’s reaching a horizontal level followed by the release of the ball.

As far as the current regulations go in the international cricket, a more than 15-degree elbow extension is not allowed in the bowling action. Presently, elbow extension is accepted up to the point at which it begins to become noticeable to the human eye. This wearable device on the basis of the technologies such as magnetometers and GPS would make the assessment accurate. It is not possible to test the actions of a cricketer, who is a human being, under laboratory conditions as the bowler might bowl differently in the relaxed laboratory environment and in the middle of a match where stress starts taking toll on the players. “That is why a device that a bowler can wear during a match is something we are very excited to be developing.” John Stephenson, assistant secretary of the MCC said.

The project leader Dr. Daniel James mentions, that this device would be particularly helpful in assessing the bowling actions of the aspiring cricketers. “It will help the coaches assess arm action early on in training as a means of injury prevention, performance improvement and as a corrective aid for suspect actions. It may also be helpful in competition,” he said. This device is going to replace the present method of frame-by-frame video analysis or in-laboratory motion analysis. The ICC and MCC top shots are hopeful that after successfully assessing the serve of a tennis player and the stroke of an Olympic swimmer this new electronic sensor would work wonder in curbing illegal bowling in the arena of international cricket.

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3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."

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