App may be of interest to the Black Caps   5 Jan 2015

A University of Canterbury cricket researcher has designed an app that may be of interest to the Black Caps.

Carl Petersen, a lecturer in sports science who has written strength and conditioning papers that contribute to the Sports Coaching degree at Canterbury, has developed an app that shows where batsmen are more likely to hit a certain type of delivery. Until now there have been no numbers published on this aspect of the game.

Dr Petersen will explain the benefit of his app to the World Congress on Science and Medicine in Sydney in March, which coincides with the Cricket World Cup, which opens in Christchurch next month.

“Until now players and captains have had to rely on experience and gut feeling with regards to where a batsman is likely to hit a ball. Applying the data is only possible if the bowler has the skill to execute the delivery required. That’s where practice comes in.”

Before joining the University of Canterbury’s School of Sport and Physical Education, Dr Petersen spentseveral years working in county cricket in England and with international cricket. He completed a sports-based PhD with Cricket Australia while based at the Australian Institute of Sport.

Last summer he was awarded a summer scholarship and employed a student (Rob Genet) to assist with research investigating where batsmen hit balls based on the balls’ pitched location. This work resulted in the development of an iPad app, which allowed for a more detailed collection than was being collected by some professional teams of data by either watching games live or via television.

“This iPad App has been utilised in our sport science lab classes to give students hands-on experience of collecting cricket performance data in real-time and more importantly introducing students to performance analysis which was timely with our Bachelor of Sport Coaching degree’s new endorsement in performance analysis.

“I presented the results of the summer project at an international conference in Spain and at the World Congress of Performance Analysis of Sport X, in Croatia, before starting work on a second batting app for coaches and captains. This tool will help with bowling field placements and deciding on appropriate bowling tactics.

“This is an exciting time for cricket with the World Cup starting next month. He says Canterbury has a strong domestic cricket history and with hot dry summers at a club level, pitches offer batsmen a chance to develop their ability to bat for long periods of time.

“Bowlers are forced to develop skills to bowl tightly on batting-friendly pitches. This also offers spin bowlers the chance to play a part an important role in the game.

“Christchurch is the nearest city to New Zealand Cricket’s training centre at Lincoln. Access to age-group tournaments at Lincoln and the close proximity to Hagley Park make it a great location for students to study cricket. New Zealand is a small country that is only three hours from Australia so there is potential to study the Australian game as well.

“While sports science often involves incorporating new technology and obtaining measurements of various things, it is important to look at how something can be used to improve performance,” Dr Petersen says.

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