Expensive biomechanical analysis equipment at the National Cricket Academy in Lahore, Pakistan is now "set to be used, after years of neglect," according to PAKISTAN TODAY. The Pakistan Cricket Board has also "approved renovation work" at the NCA indoor school and is "updating it with a modern video simulator." The biomechanical equipment was procured for about Rs 44M ($460,000) when Nasim Ashraf was PCB chairman, and was "meant to be installed" by Dec. '08. Since then all the equipment -- 18 cameras along with the other supporting apparatus and the relevant software -- "have been unused." The NCA biomechanics lab is equipped with state of the art Advanced Motion Capture Architecture from the U.K.-based Vicon Motion Systems Ltd. The lab will operate with 18 motion-capture cameras and six high-speed video cameras. The lab was "temporarily activated" at the NCA indoor school earlier in '08 by the Vicon experts. It was later "shut down" (PAKISTAN TODAY, 11/5).
COSTLY EQUIPMENT: PTI reported that a former PCB official, who was in office when the equipment was brought to Lahore, admitted "costly equipment had been badly neglected." The official said, "It is a good thing that finally someone in the board has realised the importance of using this very modern equipment, and in Pakistan cricket we have regular issues with bowling actions of bowlers and need this equipment to correct their actions at an early stage." The official said that once the building is ready for the lab, experts from Vicon would install it and the project will be "managed by a biomechanics expert, doctors, a mathematician, computer analysts and coaches" (PTI, 11/5).
