Bowling machines are considered a luxury in professional cricket across the country. Most bowling machines currently in use for professional cricket are electric ones that cost well over Rs. 1 lakh and can't use real cricket balls. Freebowler is a Bengaluru-based startup that wants to disrupt this market and change how cricket batsmen hone their skills.
As you would expect, a lot of the work in hong one's cricket skills is done on practice pitches in the nets. To actually be able to improve, every batsman either needs a skilled bowler to bowl at them or a bowling machine.
There is a big difference between a bowler and a bowling machine. A bowler will keep bowling different deliveries, vary the point and pace of delivery, and use a real cricket ball so the batsman can practice. Electric bowling machines, on the other hand, can't be moved around much, and can't use real cricket balls. They use a dimpled polyurethane ball that looks like a slightly large golf ball, which players say doesn't behave like a real cricket ball. It's great at bowling a consistent length so you can work on specific weaknesses, but it isn't ideal to simulate a match situation.
Freebowler, which is currently a self-funded company, wants to bridge this gap with its bowling machine. It looks like a metal contraption that belongs on the sets of a medieval fantasy film, but when it bowls, batsmen we spoke to said they found it much harder to face than electric bowling machines. They also said they got to practice with a real cricket ball, which adds a lot to their training. Gadgets 360 had the chance to speak with two professional cricketers who practiced batting against the Freebowler, which is manufactured in Bengaluru, at a ground in Mumbai's Kandivali suburb.
Sagar Mishra, a 24-year-old all-rounder who has played first-class cricket for Western Railway, said: “It was not like that bowling machine (electric) where the ball used to just come on bat. (Freebowler) was definitely like a bowler bowling in a match. There was a bit of seam movement and the length was unpredictable.”
Amogh Bhatkal, a 24-year-old an opening batsman for Nirlon Sports Club in Mumbai, echoed his thoughts. “It has a slingy action. It gives more like a bowler experience for a batsman to bat. Sometimes, the machine moved faster and the ball used to come slow,” he said.
Prateek Palanethra, the founder, says he came up with the concept in 2016 while he was doing his Master's degree in the US. Since cricket is not very popular in the US, Palanethra says he didn't have any easy way to practice batting. It started as a college project for him as he was trying to keep his batting skills sharp, and he couldn't find any cheap mechanical machine to help him practice batting. This prompted him to start making what is now the Freebowler.
Two years on, the first iteration of Palanethra's vision is ready. When assembled and armed for delivery, it's around 1.7m tall. To arm the Freebowler, you have to pull its sling down and lock it in position. Then, you push a metal plate down with your leg to lock it in place. Now you can place a ball on the plastic cup on the sling and signal to the batsman that you are ready to bowl. This signal is very important as the Freebowler's sling moves much faster than any bowler's arm. Then, you pull the trigger and “bowl” the delivery. Palanethra says he showed the machine to officials and players from Cricket Australia and they told him that the rotation of the Freebowler's arm is quicker than the arm rotation of a bowler. “Playing with this improves (a batsman's) reaction time. That's the feedback we got from Cricket Australia,” he said.
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We reached out to Kieran McMillan, Head of Clubs, Competitions, and Diversity at Cricket Australia, who had a chance to check out Freebowler. Here's what he told Gadgets 360: “We had the opportunity to see the Freebowler in action and test the batting skills of one of our colleagues here at CA — fair to say that one of those was a bit rusty, and it wasn't the bowling machine! From an initial view, the product has promise and could offer a cost-effective and portable solution for grassroots clubs. We will watch with interest this season with some early adopter clubs as to how effective the Freebowler is for improving the experiences of players and making it easier for volunteers to deliver the game.”