Batting with occluded vision: An in situ examination of the information pick-up and interceptive skills of high- and low-skilled cricket batsmen

Abstract

The capability of cricket batsmen of different skill levels to pick-up information from the pre-release movement pattern of the bowler, from pre-bounce ball flight, and from post-bounce ball flight was examined experimentally. Six highly skilled and six low-skilled cricket batsmen batted against three different leg-spin bowlers while wearing liquid crystal spectacles. The spectacles permitted the specific information available to the batsmen on each trial to be manipulated such that vision was either: (i) occluded at a point prior to the point of ball release (thereby only allowing vision of advance information from the bowler's delivery action); (ii) occluded at a point prior to the point of ball bounce (thereby permitting the additional vision of pre-bounce ball flight); or (iii) not occluded (thereby permitting the additional vision of post-bounce ball flight information). Measurement was made on each trial of both the accuracy of the definitive (forward-backward) foot movements made by the batsmen and their success (or otherwise) in making bat-ball contact. The analyses revealed a superior capability of the more skilled players to make use of earlier (pre-bounce) ball flight information to guide successful bat-ball interception, thus mirroring the greater use of prospective information pick-up by skilled performers observed in other aspects of batting and in other time-constrained performance domains.