The design and development of a novel training system for cricket

• Main Author: Justham, Laura M.
• Published: Loughborough University 2007
• Subjects: 796.358
• Online Access: https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.556504

Cricket is an established and traditional sport which is played in almost a hundred countries worldwide. Within the domain of cricket, ball launching machines are used in a training environment to help batsmen develop new techniques, work on areas of weakness and face a high intensity of deliveries without the need for a real bowler. A need has been recognised by coaches at the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) for an advanced training system which incorporates the unique requirements of cricket bowling to include a fully programmable bowling machine which is capable of recreating any common bowling delivery and which is synchronised with an accurate bowler representation. A number of ball-launching devices are currently available for sports training which provide a simple means of bowling, pitching or throwing a ball to a batsman or fielder. As technology progresses so too does the development of this equipment to produce more realistic training conditions. However much of this development has occurred within the domain of baseball and cannot easily be transferred into cricket. The research within this thesis is focused upon the development of a cricket-specific training system.