Warne's ambition to become German
Shane Warne never ceazes to amaze with his ability to generate headlines but this is one completely out of left field: Shane Warne considers German citizenship. What's that about, you ask? Has Warne met a foxy German minx persuading him to move onto the mainland?
No, he's doing it for his county Hampshire. Due to a new regulation limiting the number of international players in county cricket, he can't play unless he's a local. Apparently, Germans are local citizens (didn't we fight a few world wars to prevent that?) Now this is all good and great but if Warnie is so keen to play cricket, we have an entire country down here that would be more than happy to have him playing for us. And guess what. He's already got citizenship here!
| Posted by JC on Sat 18 Aug |  6 comments |
Australia develop the virtual batting studio
We all made fun of Merlin, the spin bowling machine designed to inoculate English batsmen against Warnie's leggies (and we saw how well that turned out). Now the worm has turned. There was always the question of what direction Australia's coaching staff would take now that super-nerd John Buchanan has retired. The verdict is in with the news that Australia are developing a virtual batting studio - Australia are once again raising the bar on bringing nerdiness into modern cricket:
Cameras will be set up to capture as nearly as possible a batsman's-eye view of the opposition bowlers, and relay the feed to a studio near the Australian dressing room. Players padded up and waiting to bat will be able to rehearse their innings using images gathered from the middle, and projected life-size back into the pavilion.This is just one of many egghead projects going on at Cricket Australia. We've already heard of GPS satellite tracking of players, which wasn't just a way for Simone to keep tabs on Shane but had actual practical benefits. There was the superbat in development in England. But this is the first mention I've heard of "special goggles to help pinpoint how top batsmen use cues from the bowler's arm to assess line and length before the ball is delivered". Where does it all end?
If the system works as hoped, it will mean that a player like Mike Hussey can go out to face Muttiah Muralitharan having already got his eye in against him in real time, with the ability to replay deliveries he found difficult. He could, for instance, use the cameras to polish his technique against Murali's deadly "doosra", the apparent off-spinner that turns the other way.
Call me a technophobe (strange stance for a science obsessed nerd who makes a living building websites) but all this technology doesn't sit well for me. It seems to me the coaches and staff are over-analysing and over-complicating what is in essence a simple game. Remember a simple squash ball won a World Cup last year!
| Posted by JC on Fri 3 Aug | 14 comments |
