Dubai: A bowling machine that can spin away your fears of playing on turning tracks have arrived at the ICC Global Cricket Academy.
The associate countries, training at the Global Cricket Academy for the World Cup, are now busy sharpening their skills to play spin. The biggest fear that has engulfed all nations playing in the World Cup is whether they will be able to tackle the top spinners on the spin-friendly wickets in the sub-continent.
Spin by Bola bowling machine make the ball produce off-spin as well as leg-spin deliveries. A batsman can also sharpen his foot-work by adjusting the speed of the machine. It was a treat to watch the batsmen at net practice tackle the spin and at times even getting beaten. The ball often turned sharply to strike their batting pads and at times even go through the bat and pad gap.
The delivery height of the machine can also be adjusted to accommodate the bounce of the playing surface.
The machine has a spin selection menu. It offers three choices on the spin-selection screen. They are leg-spin, off-spin and straight. Using an up and down arrow one can select the speed of the spin.
Key variations
The speed for each delivery can also be changed using the up and down buttons and the speed will change by one miles per hour.
The cricket balls will have to be fed by pressing the feed button. It is even possible to alter the time delay between each delivery in the feed sequence. The moment the ball is ready to deliver the machine will produce beep alert.
The bowling machine can produce different variations according to the need of the batsmen. It can even vary the length of delivery randomly between delivers with approximately two metres. It helps the batsman to play different deliveries within approximately two metres. The batsman can even adjust the machine to vary the side-spin and even the amount of top-spin.
Through the use of a Hi-Viz 30z balls the machine can even replicate the steeper bounce that quality bowlers can produce on hard wickets.
This machine is manufactured by Stuart and Williams at Bristol in United Kingdom. It was conceived by a club cricketer named Michael Stuart in 1984.
The main purpose was to provide accurate and consistent batting practice for cricketers of all standards and abilities. By constant modification it has now become a boon for batsmen to master all techniques of batting on different types of wickets.
