Validation of a technical intervention to correct an illegal bowling action using a smart cricket ball

Engineering of Sport 15 - Proceedings from the 15th International Conference on the Engineering of Sport (ISEA 2024)

Performance measurement systems are essential to determining the effectiveness of interventions for cricket bowling. When a player has an illegal bowling action, the elbow extends more than 15 degrees from when the bowling arm is horizontal to time of ball release. Such interventions to correct bowling actions may not always be successful, so it is important to assess whether the physical and skill performance parameters improved or worsened after the intervention. Equally important is to determine whether there are process-related parameters that prove that an intervention has been implemented. The smart cricket ball has been designed to quantify all of these parameters. This issue of legality is of critical importance to bowlers, as any breach of the rules can have serious consequences, such as being banned from competing. Hence, the aim of this study was to use the smart cricket ball to determine the effectiveness of the technical interventions to correct the illegal bowling actions of finger-spin bowlers.