Lockie Ferguson and his elder brother Mitch develop fast bowling analytics app

New Zealand pacer Lockie Ferguson is known for his extreme pace at the international level. He clocks around 150 kmph every now and then and the speed obsession seems to be in the family itself. His elder brother Mitch Ferguson was also known for his rapid pace back in the day at Auckland Grammar. But he fell off the radar and has no become a software developer.

The speed obsession has led to the Ferguson brothers developing an application called Machineroad which helps the bowlers to measure their speeds on a smartphone. The app also allows them to record the training sessions and gives the real-time feedback on lengths to be bowled among other focus points.

Speaking about the same to ESPNCricinfo, Lockie Ferguson explained what led to them developing the app and also told how it will help the budding bowlers. “It was Mitch’s baby to start with. Fortunately, I’m in cricket as well, so it was a good avenue to get technology this cutting edge into everyday users.

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“Obviously, as professionals, we get the opportunity to have HawkEye, ball tracking, and pitch mapping and all these sorts of analytics, which help to become a better cricketer and now we’re trying to put that in someone’s pocket,” he said in a virtual interaction.

App will also help bowlers assess the workload

Mitch Ferguson also explained further how the Machineroad app will help everyone assess the workload of the bowlers leading to avoid the injuries. Mitch himself had to go through a lot of injuries and the mismanagement of his bowling led to him going away from the sport.

“I guess the main reason behind [creating] the app was some of the stuff that I went through as a young cricketer. I was going through the grades and involved in a lot of representative cricket and obviously having quite a few injuries during that time as well. Ultimately, it was kind of based around how we can provide visibility to some of those young players because I definitely missed out on my fair share of opportunities,” he added.

Lockie Ferguson and Mitch recently used the developed app with the Parnell Plums Women’s side in Auckland. One of their players Maddy Curran clocked 110 kph which hogged the attention of Northern Districts who have called her to their academy.