Cricket technology developed
2010-07-29 21:25
Cape Town - South African researchers have developed software that should give cricket coaches an edge in preparing teams to perform on the pitch.
Similar to applications that assist soccer and rugby coaches (Soccerstat and Rugbystat) researchers at the CSIR have developed Optiplay Cricket to assist coaches in developing cricket players.
"It's simply a tool that enables the coach or performance analyst to identify areas of strength or weakness in their players or opposition more quickly," technical development manager Matthew Vassard told News24 as he rejected suggestions that the software could replace coaches.
"Optiplay requires the user to search the data themselves based on filtering mechanisms that drill the data down on attributes ranging from shot types or runs scored, to sector selection of where shots were played on the wagon wheel.
"In future versions, we are looking to starting exploiting data mining techniques to bring certain aspects of play to the coach's attention proactively. But teams will always need someone to give specialist attention to players," said Vassard.
Affordability
The technology will enable teams, coaches and match analysts to track, manage and analyse matches objectively, and because it was developed to run in a Microsoft environment, it is compatible with most computer systems.
Vassard stressed its affordability.
"Optiplay Cricket can now run one executable in three different levels of functionality. The entry level mode provides basic scoring facilities and reporting. The intermediate level adds 3D visualisation of positional information such as wagon wheels and ball trajectory information.
"Because of this tiered packaging, we can now cater for all levels of competition from grassroots all the way up to elite cricket," he said.
Vassard said that cricket organisations can use the tool to track individual player performance and expose flaws so that players can learn objectively and improve their game.
"To illustrate, batsmen normally take the first 10 - 15 balls of their innings to get themselves settled at the crease. During this time, they may have technique flaws that the bowler can exploit first up.
"The analyst can use Optiplay to quickly generate a playlist of the first 10 balls of all of the batsman's last five innings which the analyst can then pull into biomechanical analysis software to look for technique problems.
"If the batsman's head is falling over, or playing from his crease, then this makes him a candidate for LBW and so the bowler can be encouraged to bowl the ball fuller," said Vassard.
The software has its roots in similar a product called Crickstat, developed by the CSIR with former Proteas coach, Bob Woolmer. Whether this tool will help the Proteas win the World Cup in 2011 remains speculation.
- Follow Duncan on Twitter