The Production Line
A bowling coach and an academic are using data to build better fast bowlers.
Allan Donald is the Godfather of fast bowling, according to Shaun Pollock. Donald is the beginning of South Africa’s assembly line of world-class fast bowlers. After Donald, South Africa has produced one iconic fast bowler after the other. EFBG was created to ensure that the lineage is never broken.
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Lungi Ngidi stood at the top of his mark. Behind the stumps there was a rectangular black cloth, if he missed the stumps, the black cloth would be his target. His eyes were focused on that. Ngidi was in a two-piece body suit; a body-hugging long-sleeved shirt and long tights. He also wore a headband and had sensors on his palms. Everything was connected by cables. Thin cables were visible at the neck, wrists and ankles.
It was early 2018 and Lungi Ngidi was about to bowl an over, six balls, as fast as he could. Ngidi had gone through two stages of screening before he reached the nets. First, he underwent muscular-skeletal screening, which was done by the physio. After that, he had to pass a fitness test conducted by a strength and conditioning coach.
The EFBG campus, where South African bowlers go when in search of that extra one per cent that will make them better, is situated at the TUKs cricket stadium. The University of Pretoria’s sports complex, where TUKs is based, is a hive of activity. Almost directly across from the nets, there is activity on the basketball and netball courts.
The TUKs nets look less busy in comparison. Most of the time, only one person, the bowler, does the moving as they go through their allotment of balls. Cones demarcate areas. There are a couple of cameras around. They are focused on the bowlers, the information they record will be useful later. There is also a speed gun.
A few metres away from the nets in use, Benita Olivier sits in the shade of a gazebo tent. Olivier, a professor of musculoskeletal physiotherapy, is one half of EFBG - Elite Fast Bowlers Group. Olivier has researched and written extensively on motion analysis, neuromusculoskeletal physiotherapy and injuries in cricketers, rugby players and endurance athletes.
The other half of EFBG is Vincent Barnes. Barnes has been in the CSA coaching set up since 1997, when he took charge of the SA Under-19 side. He was the Proteas’ bowling coach for nine years and is the current high-performance manager for Cricket South Africa.
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EFBG was born out of necessity.
“Vernon Philander, Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel were all injured,” says Barnes. “We had only one fit fast bowler that was fit and that was Kagiso Rabada. Otis Gibson, the Proteas coach at the time, was worried, he did not know who was ready for international cricket and who was not. We decided that we needed a program that could monitor all the fast bowlers in the country.”
Barnes developed a database of all fast bowlers in South Africa, from the Proteas to the Under-17 level. The database helps Barnes and his team track the progress of every fast bowler, including how fit they are, what speeds they’re generating and how many overs they are bowling. That led to the creation of Cricket Clinic.
Every bowler, including teen sensation Kwena Maphaka, has a log book. The log book helps them keep track of the number of overs they must either not exceed or fall short of when bowling.
“Cricket Clinic is a athletes management system,” says Barnes. “After matches, coaches send information to Cricket Clinic and on Monday morning, I get all the information on all identified fast bowlers, I get a list which tells me who has been red-flagged because they were bowling too much, or maybe they've come back from injury and bowled too much in one week.”
It is not enough to simply monitor bowlers; the key to long-term success lies in keeping the best fast bowlers on the field for as long as possible, bowling as fast as they can. To do that effectively, Barnes needed to find a way to take a closer look at the bowlers, he needed to look at the way they bowl and assess their fitness levels. He had to find a way to test them.
Barnes got in touch with Benita Olivier. A few months later, EFBG was born. Lungi Ngidi was the first bowler to join EFBG. Ngidi’s progress had been hampered by a few injuries. When he went for testing with EFBG, Ngidi was making his return after a major back injury.
“We needed to find out why Lungi was picking up these injuries,” says Barnes. “The tests gave us so much information that we were able plot the way forward for Lungi to help him to remain injury-free for as long as possible.”
With the information that they harvest from the body suit - the body suit (and its accessories) is a tracking device used for biomechanical evaluations - EFBG is able is advise bowlers on everything from what to do to pick up more speed or whether their action makes them prone to certain injuries, and what to do about that.
The information collected by the body suit is sent directly to Olivier’s laptop. She then decodes the data before sending to Barnes.
After his over, Lungi Ngidi wandered over to Vincent Barnes for a brief chat. No coaching happens here. Later in his office, Barnes went over the video footage of Ngidi’s session and Olivier’s findings. A few days later, Barnes sat down with Lungi Ngidi and Charl Langervedt, he would make recommendations that would lead to the birth of Lungi Ngidi 2.0.
“EFBG is in place to do two things, 1. improve our bowlers based on scientific data and 2. to ensure that our cupboards remain fully stocked with quality fast bowlers,” says Vincent Barnes.
EFBG has grown from Testing eight bowlers in its first year to regularly testing and advising 40 top fast bowlers in South Africa. As Mike Atherton said on SkySports, “As a batter, pace makes you do funny things.” Through EFBG’s efforts, the Proteas will be able to keep opposition batters doing funny things for a long time to come.
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