Elf-Vengsarkar goes hi-tech

Throw their hands up in despair? Not necessary. The answer lies in an all-purpose contraption called BOLA. The Rs 2.5 lakh bowling machine, the first of its kind in Mumbai, arrived at the Elf-Vengsarkar Cricket Academy (EVCA) to hone the skills of the city’s finest congregation of budding cricketing talent.

It’s a misnomer to dub the mechanical marvel a `bowling machine’. The machine, in fact, can also be employed profitably in fielding drills. “The machine can fire balls (red dimpled polyurethane balls, or normal cricket ones) at varying heights, velocity, angles and length to help evenfielders specialising in the deep get the kind of catching they cannot hope from human hands,” says Makarand Waingankar, chief co-ordinator of the EVCA.

The machine ensures that key bowlers are not overworked and, consequently, exposed to risk of injury. Moreover, there are limits to human capabilities and stamina. A batsman may face 100 deliveries in the net, yet he may barely get about 10 balls that he considers suitable to essay the troublesome shots.

Unlike its human counterparts, BOLA never tires and delivers ball after ball so perfectly that deliveries at the end of a practice session are as testing as the first ball. Batsmen now have the option of facing the kind of sustained quality and variety — pace, in-swing, out-swing, off-spin, leg-spin, yorker etc — that he cannot aspire from any human being in the nets.

How does the machine work?

When switched on, the default speed setting on the control panel adjusts itself at 30 miles per hour (mph). The buttons can be used to increase ordecrease the velocity, ranging between 15 mph to 95 mph. A secondary effect of adjusting the pace is that the length changes as well. If the speed is increased, the length of the delivery also increases and vice-versa.

When the machine, which can be operated on 12 V batteries or 240V AC, is switched on, the default bias setting is zero on the panel. Pressing the bias buttons to left or right adjusts the amount of bias between the ball delivery wheel speeds to produce swing and spin. There are nine bias settings available on both the left and right buttons. The tricolour LEDs above the bar arrays, besides the display, gives an indication of the expected effect. Setting it at zero gives a straight delivery. Settings one and two gives a fairly straight delivery. The small amounts of bias will rotate the ball, stabilise it in flight and thereby improve accuracy a little but will give little discernible swing. Setting three, four, five, six and seven will give increasing amounts of swing while settings eight andnine are for spin.

The delivery head is mounted on a large ball joint which allows almost infinite adjustment of line length and angle for delivery. Slackening the large knob at the front of the machine to loosen the ball joint clamp allows one to select the desired position for the delivery head before re-tightening the clamp.