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Technique and technology
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A. Prasanna's cricket software is revolutionising the way young talent is analysed at the National Cricket Academy. He says it has a role to play in the senior team's performance appraisal also
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PHOTO: K. BHAGYA PRAKASH
DISSECTION AND RECTIFICATION A. Prasanna: `The generated data not only helps the selectors but also helps coaches identify and rectify flaws in a player'
A few months back, Indian cricket team coach Greg Chappell knocked on his cabin door, peeped in and said, "Congrats, mate." A. Prasanna, technical head of the National Cricket Academy, was perplexed and immediately asked, "For what?" Chappell then mentioned former coach John Wright's profuse praise for Prasanna's cricket software package in the book Indian Summers.
It is one of the recent vignettes from Prasanna's life that is characterised by an extreme passion for cricket. A passion that made him leave his hometown Chennai and also quit the software industry. It has been a journey that was built on sleepless nights, spent creating cricket analysis software and the day that was spent initially as a programmer with GE Software and later with Annapolis Technologies.
"I left the IT industry when I had an offer to go to the United States. I knew that once I moved out of India, I wouldn't be able to pursue my passion for cricket. Thankfully, last November I was appointed by the NCA and I have to thank administrative manager Col. Nair and Venkatesh Prasad for all their support," says Prasanna.
The packages
His cricket software tools, primarily the In And Out package, is a complete analysis program that helps the coach and the support staff dissect a player's performance as a batsman, bowler and fielder. All the parameters can be analysed with the click of a mouse.
And the software rich in video inputs also helps the players and coaches spot their chinks on the computer screen. It is a tool that has been used by the India under-19 team and is accessible to all other junior teams though the senior team is yet to officially use it.
Prasanna relives his journey from obscurity to a page in Wright's book with disarming candour.
"I did my B.E. and an advanced diploma in Microsoft Technologies at Chennai. At the same time I had my chances as a cricketer at the under-19 state level, but with competition from the likes of S. Sriram and Hemang Badani, I had no options. Then I qualified as an umpire and was officiating in the TNCA league and eventually I joined GE in Bangalore. When I moved here in 2001 and heard about John Wright approaching Phoenix Technologies for a cricket software, I decided that I will develop a cricket analysis software on my own."
His hard work eventually resulted in the In And Out package that drew praise and inputs from Wright and Bob Woolmer.
Wright asked Prasanna to incorporate video inputs while Woolmer stressed on the need to use Hawkeye technology. Prasanna also set up a performance appraisal website for the NCA where coaches, talent resource directors and match referees feed their inputs on junior players. It is a valuable database that helps selectors at the junior level appraise talent.
"We have a database on all junior players up to the under-22 level. We have details on Rohit Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara and a clutch of other talented youngsters who are knocking on the senior team's door. The generated data not only helps the junior selectors but it also helps coaches identify and rectify flaws in a player."
Prasanna has also developed a Penetrative Analysis package that helps the coaches analyse the body movement of players. "You could use super-slow replays and point out for instance where a batsman's elbow is or a bowler's use of the leading arm. It helps in correcting technical errors."
Currently he is working with the Indian team trainer Gregory King to develop a software that will keep a tab on the fitness parameters of players.
"I couldn't make it as a player or as an umpire but it would be nice to wear the India cap as an analyst with the senior team," says the man who named his son Sachin, besides being called the cricket nut by Wright in Indian Summers.
K.C. VIJAYA KUMAR
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