UAE cricket team is techno-savvy

Sharjah: With cricket no longer a mere skill-based game, analyses of player performances, including that of opponents, has become inevitable.

The UAE cricket team with a view to bolstering future player performances in international matches has now introduced computer analysis of players.

Subramaniam Ramakrishnan, the Indian cricket team computer analyst, popularly known as Ramki, helped the UAE introduce it here.

Software

"Ramki flew in with the software during the Kenya-Namibia Intercontinental Cup match and demonstrated the procedure to be followed. It will be very useful to assess the performance of our players," said Mazhar Khan, the administrator of Emirates Cricket Board.

Ramki trained Umer Hameed, a promising cricketer who often does the scoring for international matches in the UAE. "It was a great experience to learn about this software. It captures all the action from the middle onto the laptop ball by ball from a camera placed in line with the stumps. This will enable all players to analyse their weakness and also get a measure of the strength of their opponents," felt Hameed who has represented the UAE Under-19 team and plays for Fly Emirates in domestic cricket.

"I had done some short courses on computer hardware and software and will be joining Emirates as an aircraft technician. So I was able to catch Ramki's instructions easily and smoothly introduce it here," said Hameed, who not only collects all data on players but also transfers it onto a hard disk for the team coach.

"The coach will now be able to show every player their weakness on a projector and work to rectify their defects," Hameed added. He records all the six balls in an over session by session and transfers it to a video for further study.

Ramki has been instrumental in helping Indian batsman Virender Sehwag score his triple century in Multan.

Before the start of the Multan Test, he showed Sehwag that his feet were wide and his head was not still while making strokes. Sehwag made the necessary corrections and went on to become the first Indian batsman to hit a triple century in Test cricket.

"Now, after the match, all UAE players come to have a look at how they got out and why they bowled badly," said Hameed.