Pakistani engineers create new app to help bowlers check their actions

In the recent times, cricket in Pakistan has faced several issues. Among the many perennial issues that they have had is the case of suspect bowling actions. From Saeed Ajmal to Mohammad Hafeez – many have been through it. In order to sort this out, Pakistani engineers have devised an application named CricFlex. The application is set to be a remarkable invention, if it gets the nod from the top shots.

As per the recent reports in The Tribune, three electrical engineers from Islamabad have devised this app called CricFlex which is set to determine the arm bend of the bowlers. The app comes along with an arm band to track the movements. For the numbers, as many as 29 bowlers have been reported for illegal actions in domestic cricket. Among those, a total of 16 bowlers have been banned as well.

These three Pakistani engineers are from the National University of Science and Technology. The team leader of CricFlex remarked that they got motivated by watching the news of Saeed Ajmal’s ban. They decided to help the cause of Pakistan cricket.

“We had to submit a project and Ajmal’s ban was all over the news. We decided to develop a wearable band with motion sensors and published a research paper on it, before working on the design,” said Abdullah Ahmed, CricFlex’s team leader.

“We wanted to make an accurate band that is convenient and comfortable enough for a bowler to wear while playing without affecting his performance. After taking suggestions from various experts, we came to the conclusion that we should use three motion sensors; one near the wrist, one at the forearm and the third near the elbow,” he added.

How it works

Explaining further, Abdullah remarked that the bowler is expected to wear the band and stand in three positions. The device then maps to the bowler’s movements. And then, it indicates the various aspects of how much the arm is bending and at what speed in the ball is being released. The results are instantaneous.

“Each bowler wears the sleeve and then holds his arm in three positions: stretched out straight, bent at 45 degrees and then bent at 90 degrees; this allows the device to calibrate itself according to that particular bowler. The app not only shows the bend in his arm but also the force applied and the speed at which it is released. The app instantly lets the bowler know if the delivery is legal or not,” Abdullah explained.

Much better than the conventional biomechanics

To elucidate the effectiveness of the app, the CricFlex leader also showed a big contrast between the time taken by the conventional biomechanics and the time taken by the app. He noted that the biomechanics costs a lot more and also, it takes about three weeks to give a result. On the other, the cost of the CricFlex app is just 300 USD and the setup is done within half an hour.

“We used this at a local Islamabad academy and the players were amazed by the results. As many as 20% of the bowlers had illegal actions, so by the end of the session they knew they needed to work on that. Biomechanics labs take up to 21 days to provide results and cost a lot more. The CricFlex, on the other hand, costs around $300, and can be made within 30 minutes. We have received pre-orders from all over the world and are targeting to deliver it to the mass public within three months,” he noted.

Green signal from the PCB

Commenting on how these Pakistani engineers are hoping to take this forward, Abdullah noted that they have shown the app to the officials at the NCA, Lahore. They have liked the app and they hope to get things working in time to collaborate with the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) as well.

“We went to National Cricket Academy (NCA) director Mudassar Nazar. He tested it himself and was very impressed by it. He even took us to the biomechanics lab that the PCB has set up at LUMS but we were unable to corroborate the results since that is not in real time and also because a bowler can’t wear both equipment at the same time,” Abdullah conceded.

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