After cricket, cutting-edge tech set to transform football and chess too

A startup in Bengaluru has developed a sensor that helps batsmen and coaches gain insights on bat speed, impact speed, bat-lift angle, and bat path, with an option to replay the action in 360 degrees

Soccer games are known not just for exciting goals and passes by players; they are also notorious for the brawls that fans get into when they disagree with a referee’s decision. This could change with November’s FIFA World Cup in Qatar, which will for the first time see sensors and cameras help make critical decisions in matches.  

Al Rihla, the official match ball for the event, will have an inertial measurement unit (IMU) sensor placed inside it, which will play a vital role in detecting tight offside incidents. The sensor, positioned at the centre of the ball, will send ball data to the video operation room 500 times per second, allowing a very precise detection of the kick point.

FIFA announced the new technology as a support tool for video match officials and on-field officials to help them make faster, more accurate, and more reproducible offside decisions at the world’s biggest football event.

Moreover, stadiums at the World Cup will have 12 dedicated tracking cameras mounted on the roof to track the ball. They will send up to 29 data points of each player 50 times per second to calculate their exact position on the ground. By combining limb- and ball-tracking data with artificial intelligence (AI), the technology will help make faster and more accurate offside decisions.

FIFA is a late entrant in this club. Cricket has been using different technologies for decision reviews for years. From stump mics and LED stumps, to hawkeye, hotspot, snickometer and the Decision Review System (DRS), on-field technology has vastly improved the accuracy of decisions made on the cricket field.

With the demand for technology-enabled innovations in sport rising exponentially, global sports tech is projected to become a $35-billion industry by 2025.

Scope in coaching

However, experts say that the industry has a wider scope in training and coaching. “The reason we play is that we believe we have the potential to play better. This is causing this industry to explode,” says Gagan Daga, chief executive officer of Str8bat Sports Tech Solutions.

The Bengaluru-based startup has developed a sensor to help batsmen and coaches gain insights on bat speed, impact speed, bat-lift angle, and bat path, along with an option to replay the complete action in 360 degrees.

Daga says accuracy is important while gathering, processing, and analysing batting data in cricket. “A four-degree shift in bat-lift angle improves impact significantly. A small change in bat-lift improves a player’s six-hitting consistency by 33 per cent. Very marginal changes are important to improve batting. The product uses engineering physics, Newtonian motion, signal-processing, calculus, and data science to improve accuracy.”

Personalised analysis

Gathering datasets for personalised analysis was a major challenge while building the sensor. “As many as 1,800 batsmen, from international players to grassroots-level players, played 17,000 shots with it and we captured different styles, motions, and so on. We built equations based on this learning. Then we started working with teams, leagues and academics worldwide,” recalls Daga.

He explains, moreover, that every player has a different way of playing a cover drive, so the technology needs to understand the data, build equations, and align it to motion physics. “It is not only a continuous process, but we have to use pure science applications almost every single day.”

The sensor costs Rs2,999, plus a 99-rupee monthly subscription per user. More than 5,000 players from India, South Africa, and Australia use the technology currently. The bat sensor, says Daga, has recorded a million shots to date. “Now we are using AI and machine learning (ML) to personalise the data. We will soon launch an AI feature that will simulate how many runs you have scored on the ground using Str8bat.”

How can datasets help in analysing the game? “If a player goes behind the line of the ball for 10 mini seconds extra, it improves his consistency by 17 per cent on the off side,” says Daga. “Left-handers have 18 per cent higher bat speed and 23 per cent higher impact speed than right-handers on the off side.”

He believes that evolving technologies will continue to transform cricket. “It started with two umpires. I believe that very soon we will return to two umpires. The third umpire will be removed because, with all the technology available, umpires will be able to make instantaneous decisions.”

According to reports, the sports tech industry is growing nearly 1.7X to 2X every year. This has attracted major IT players to invest in this domain. For example, IT giant Tech Mahindra has built an immersive platform for chess.

“We started with the launch of the digital platform Fan Nxt on the sidelines of the 44th Chess Olympiad,” says Jagdish Mitra, chief strategy officer and head of growth, Tech Mahindra. “Now we are working to build a Metaverse which will allow your avatar to play with the avatar of prominent chess players like Magnus Carlsen, Praggnanandhaa, and others.”

“AI gives players this opportunity. Using ML, it analyses and gives insights into the moves different players make. The technology has captured and organised the data, so it can give a complete experience of sitting across an avatar and seeing what moves they are likely to make. Web 3.0 and augmented and virtual reality has made this possible,” Mitra adds.

As more and more chess tournaments shift to online platforms, players and fans have been raising some concerns. Earlier this month, Norwegian chess grandmaster Magnus Carlsen announced his withdrawal from the 2022 Sinquefield Cup. It is widely believed that he was convinced that online matches involved cheating.

“We are trying to solve the problem of fair play in chess when the game is conducted online,” says Mitra, adding that Tech Mahindra sees sport as a very critical vertical.

“Sports tech can transform games in the same way that edtech has done in the field of education. Technology will drive transformation in the process of talent spotting, scouting, and training in the country.” he says. “We are constantly looking at two things -- partnerships and acquisitions. But it has to be a value proposition and has to complement what we are doing.”