How cricket analysis actually works
What a phone camera can measure about a delivery or a shot, how it is measured, and where the limits are.
Cricket analysis used to mean a biomechanics lab: reflective markers taped to a player’s joints, several synchronised cameras, and a booking. The data was genuinely good and almost nobody could get to it. Markerless analysis replaces the markers with a model that locates joints directly in the image, which means ordinary video from a phone becomes the input instead of a lab session.
Two things then decide whether the numbers are worth anything, and neither is the software. The first is where you put the camera: a lens measures movement across its sensor plane well and movement along its viewing axis poorly, so filming square to the action rather than from behind it changes results materially. The second is frame rate, which sets how finely fast movement is sampled — 60fps resolves a delivery that 30fps blurs past.
The pages below cover each measurement in turn: what it is, how it is recovered from video, and what it cannot tell you. They are written to be useful whether or not you use Stance, because a measurement you cannot interrogate is not one you should trust.
Filming checklist
The same four rules apply to every measurement on this site, and getting them right matters more than any setting inside an app.
- Square to the action. Not behind the bowler, not behind the batter. Movement toward the lens is the axis a single camera knows least about.
- Stumps in frame. Stumps are a regulated size, so they are the known reference that converts pixels into real distance. Without them there is nothing to calibrate against.
- 60fps or better. At 30fps a fast delivery travels about a metre between frames, which coarsens everything derived from it.
- Camera still, light good. A fixed surface beats a steady hand, and short exposures are what freeze a moving ball into something trackable rather than a streak.
Cricket biomechanics from a phone video
How markerless biomechanics works for cricket: what one phone video can measure, what it cannot, and how joint angles are recovered without sensors.
How to check cricket bowling speed on your phone
Film side-on in slow motion, count frames from release to the stumps and divide about 18.5 m by the time. Steps, a free calculator and the kinds of app.
Cricket batting technique analysis: what to measure in every shot
Cricket batting analysis from phone video: the phases of a shot, what to measure (head, base, trunk, sequencing), how to film it and read the results.
Cricket video analysis software for coaches and academies
What cricket video analysis software should do for a coach or academy: one measurement standard for every player, and session history that survives staff changes.
The 15-degree rule: what makes a bowling action illegal
The 15 degree bowling action rule: what the ICC measures from arm horizontal to release, why a bent arm can be legal, and why hyperextension doesn’t count.
How to choose a cricket analysis app: what each type measures
The best cricket analysis app depends on what you want measured: ball trackers, speed apps, radar guns, bat sensors and pose apps compared by type.
Chucking in cricket: what it is, how the rule changed and how it is policed
What chucking means under Law 21.2, how the ICC’s elbow tolerance moved from 5–10 degrees to 15, and how suspect actions are reported, tested and suspended.
How to check if your bowling action is legal from video
Check your bowling action from phone video: how to film it, read the elbow angle frame by frame, bound single-camera error, and when to get an official test.
Average cricket bowling speed by age and level
Measured in published studies, selected juniors bowled about 80 km/h at 11, 92 at 13, 110 at 15–16 and 119 at 17. Club adults: 108. Tables in km/h and mph.
How Stance Cricket differs from other cricket apps
Stance Cricket measures the player’s body as well as the ball from phone video, with no sensor or radar. How it compares with other cricket apps.
Bowling speed apps explained: speed meter apps, ball trackers and radar guns
How bowling speed meter apps work: tap timers, frame marking, automatic ball tracking and radar guns, what limits each, and the pitch distance to check.
How to increase bowling speed: what the research shows
How to bowl faster, from the research: run-up speed, a braced front leg, trunk flexion, delayed arm action, strength and sprint training, and what doesn’t work.
Fast bowling action types: side-on, semi-open, front-on and mixed
Side-on, semi-open, front-on and mixed bowling actions defined by hip and shoulder alignment, why mixed actions are linked to back injury, and how to spot one.
Bowling action analysis: what to measure from video, phase by phase
Bowling action analysis from phone video: what to measure from run-up to release, how to film it, the limits of one camera, and the kinds of app.
Fastest bowler in the world: the fastest recorded balls in cricket history
Shoaib Akhtar’s 161.3 km/h (2003) is the fastest recorded ball in cricket. The 10 fastest bowlers on record, the IPL’s quickest and speed-gun glitches.
How fast is a cricket ball? Speeds by type of bowler, from hand to bat
Cricket ball speed: elite finger spinners 64–84 km/h, club seamers about 108, elite men’s pace 122–127. How it slows, and how long a batter has to react.
Swing and seam bowling: how inswing, outswing and reverse swing work
Swing and seam bowling explained: how inswing, outswing, reverse and contrast swing work, grips and release, good length, legal ball care and what video shows.
Spin bowling types and grips: finger spin, wrist spin and every main delivery
Finger vs wrist spin: how the off-break, doosra, carrom ball, leg-break, googly, flipper and slider are gripped, which way they turn and what research says.
Types of shots in cricket: every batting shot, named and explained
Every type of shot in cricket, named and explained: front-foot drives, back-foot cuts and pulls, sweeps and modern shots, with the ball each one is played to.
How to play the cover drive: technique, faults and drills
How to play the cover drive: when to play it, step-by-step technique, common faults and fixes, drills, and what biomechanics research says about the drive.