Three-dimensional linear and angular kinematics of a spinning cricket ball

The purpose of this study was to analyse the performance outcomes of spin bowlers by using a motion analysis procedure to measure the linear and angular kinematics of a spinning ball. A three-dimensional (3D) Cortex motion analysis system was used to track three markers strategically placed on the ball spinning in flight. Data were further processed using 3D vector kinematics to calculate the ball's linear speed, spin rate and direction of the angular velocity vector. Thirty-four district-level spin bowlers, including both finger-spinners and wrist-spinners, were recruited to bowl 20 standard deliveries, and 5 deliveries of any variation in their repertoire. The results show that spin bowlers can produce various combinations of spin rate and angular velocity vector orientations to implement substantially different methods of utilising both swerve and turn off the pitch to deceive the batsman. In particular, it was found that wrist-spin bowlers could potentially swerve the ball either towards the left or right of the batsman. In addition, the ball's angular velocity vector can be displayed during the live capture, which is able to demonstrate spin-bowling performance in the laboratory.