With the performance of the England cricket team being somewhat variable this season, particularly away from home, the team have been searching for ways to improve the performance of its players. One of the difficulties of playing away is that each pitch has its own conditions and variables, with things such as weather and pitch condition becoming important at high levels of the sport. This is something that is very difficult to replicate with traditional training techniques. Not to mention how the style of individual bowlers can change the game significantly for batsmen.
As such, the England and Wales Cricket Board took a visit to Queen’s University Belfast to see Professor Cathy Craig, an expert on VR sports technology, who has been working on a system that reconstructs environments of various cricket pitches around the world, and also some of the best bowlers on rival teams, to allow batsmen to hone their skills against virtual bowlers.
Bowling is much more wearing on the body than batting, and as a result batsmen often face less skilled bowlers as team managers aim to conserve a bowler’s strength. The VR system allows for batsmen to train against highly skilled virtual opponents, without risking valuable players.
Raph Brandon, the ECB’s head of science, says. “The theory is excellent. We understand what the performance potential is. VR could allow increased learning in a safe environment against dangerous short-pitched fast bowling – a 14-year-old could face a virtual Mark Wood,” Brandon explains. “You could have academy batsmen facing a pre-programmed elite level of fast bowling and wrist spin over and over again.”
Source: VR Focus