Identification of Spin Bowling Deliveries with an Advanced Smart Cricket Ball

The type of throw of a spin bowler can be analysed in the laboratory using a motion analysis system. However, there is still no method to determine the type of throw using other means and less effort. To solve this problem, we revised the traditional classification of spin bowling throws and analysed whether spin bowling throws are separate entities or continuous concepts. We used an advanced smart cricket ball with high-speed gyroscopes to record the bowling actions and mathematically transformed the spin axis from the ball coordinate system (BCS) to the global coordinate system (GCS). We developed a visualisation method to map spin bowling throws from the yaw and pitch angles of the ball’s spin axis in the GCS. We compared the data from the smart ball with the data from the motion analysis system and profiled seven spin bowlers using the new method. The results of this study have shown that spin bowling throws are continuous concepts and that all differences between the two spin axis measurement methods were within 95% limits of agreement. The Smart Ball is sufficiently accurate to measure the direction of the ball’s spin axis in the GCS and is therefore well suited for profiling spin bowlers. Hybrid deliveries between sidespin, top/backspin, and swerve maximise the deviations of the ball in flight from the straight flight path in all three planes of the GCS. Hybrid throws between sidespin, top/backspin, and spin maximise the ball’s deviation from the straight trajectory in all three planes of the GCS.