The ECB have agreed a three-year partnership with Catapult, the global leader in athlete analytics, to work together in providing England cricketers with the best possible scientific support.
Under the partnership, England players – men and women – will benefit from Catapult’s technology, of which the most familiar are the micro-sensors which players wear underneath their shirts.
The system provides the England players and conditioning coaches with a full picture of physical performance during practice and matches.
But the relationship goes well beyond that, through the cricket-specific data science that has been developed by Catapult's specialists, in collaboration with the ECB’s innovation team.
Raph Brandon, the ECB’s Head of Science, Medicine & Innovation, explained: “We’re really excited about this partnership – it has already brought us major benefits, and there is the potential for so much more.
“It’s a three-year performance technology partnership, taking us through to the 2019 ICC World Cup in England and Wales.
“Catapult are exciting partners to work with, as you can see from the range and quality of their other sporting partnerships all over the world.
“It started from fast bowling, to enable an automated method of monitoring both the training and match workload of the bowlers. But now, the quality of data we can capture and analyse means we now have far more facts to support the ‘feel’ we get from the expertise of our coaches in their support of the players.
“We can measure run-up speeds, the amount of acceleration going through the body, the amount of rotation going through their trunk, and so much more – in practice, as well as matches.
“But although it was initially bowling-motivated, there will also be major benefits for optimising our preparation methods for batting and fielding. For example, scoring a century in a one-day international will generally involve between seven and 12 miles total distance on your feet, including many sprints.
“Trevor Bayliss, Mark Robinson and the other England coaches have already received some information they weren’t expecting. This opens our eyes to the specific physicality of cricket, and will provide the players with an extra edge in pushing their fitness levels for performance.”
Paul Boanas, Catapult Director of Sales, EMEA, commented: “We are delighted to formalise our partnership with the ECB. Our cutting-edge technology, across wearable devices and analytics software, is perfectly suited to cricket and we look forward to helping the elite English players take their game on to the next level.”
