Peter George was watching the 2013 Adelaide Ashes Test when Ryan Harris struck the final blow. England tailender Monty Panesar had been caught by Chris Rogers at short coverto end the Test and confirm a 2-0 series advantage for Australia.
Or had they?
The celebrations suddenly stopped as the umpires checked with the TV replay to ensure Harris hadn’t bowled a no-ball. The wicket was finally confirmed but the moment was lost. Australia’s big Ashes win was reduced to 13 players staring awkwardly at a screen. George thought to himself, “someone’s got to do something about this.”
With plenty of help from his wife and business partner Suzy, the former fast bowler invented the MyCall detector — a lightweight electronic sensor that fits to the back of a bowler’s shoe.
It can trigger a live display or sound to instantly tell the umpire if a bowler has overstepped the line.
George was a paceman who turned out for South Australia and Queensland. He played one Test against India in 2010 but is best remembered by many for the nickname inspired by his great height: “Two-Metre Peter”.
Given his enormous stride, George says he never had problems bowling too many no-balls but has been told by friends over the years they reckon he had bowled entire spells where he stepped over the line every time but was never called because his action made it near impossible for umpires to see his front foot.
He had also studied mechanical engineering and decided to direct those skills into what had become a sporting obsession. “I remember seeing the footage of Shane Warne getting out for 99 but Dan Vettori had actually bowled a no-ball to get him out,” he told AWAAT.
“Also knowing it’s such a hard thing for umpires to do, to look at the ground and check for a no-ball and then see what’s going on at the other end …
“It was something that interested me in terms of a technical challenge.”
George says some umpires have privately admitted to him checking for no-balls is a responsibility they would rather relinquish so they can concentrate on the more important job of adjudicating on lbws and catches.
Prototypes of the sensor have been trialled, with the idea being that every bowler has one fixed to their boot permanently. George says the MyCall device would then have the ability to produce additional data — measuring how many kilometres a bowler travels in a day’s play or calculating the forces they undergo in the physically demanding act of fast bowling.
“They do testing on force plates that show it is something like 10-12 times a bowler’s body weight that goes through that front leg,” he says. “Those sorts of measures are a side impact of the initial reason for MyCall but it becomes its own benefit.”
George will need the various cricket bodies, including the ICC, to get involved if his invention is to really take off, but he has already enticed former teammate Chris Lynn into investing and, after seeing our item last week about Steve Smith’s booming start-up investments, George would love to get a call from the former Test captain.
Head to https://www.mycallnoball.com for more information.
Storming Twitter
It’s hardly been a conventional sporting year so it seems thoroughly appropriate that a Melbourne club filled with non-Victorians that played in Melbourne only twice was Twitter’s most mentioned team of the year.
The Melbourne Storm, forced to flee Victoria before the coronavirus pandemic locked the nation down, was No 1 on Twitter’s data analysis as they surged all the way to the NRL premiership after basing themselves in Queensland.
Twitter’s No 2 team was another Victorian club forced to flea their home base. Richmond played their first five games in Melbourne before heading to the Sunshine State and eventually winning the AFL grand final.
Hardly a surprise that the premiers of Australia’s two biggest football codes topped the list. The Brisbane Lions were fourth and Adelaide Crows fifth but a team that played only three games came in third — the Queensland State of Origin team.
“Twitter became the new virtual pub for many with sporting fans flocking to the platform to stay in touch with their teams and to relive past games to fill the void left by live sports being put on hold,” said Twitter Australia’s Olly Wilton.
The most used sporting hashtag of 2020, however, came well before the pandemic struck Australia. #ausopen, used during January’s Australian Open tennis tournament, came in ahead of #afl, #nrl, #origin and #nba.
Sports fans generally love the Australian Open (newspaper sports desks frequently find it two weeks of hell), but Twitter’s analysis may be further proof of what AWAAT has long suspected: tennis is the favourite sport of people who otherwise don’t like sport.
Arsenal of top motors
Arsenal may have sunk to a lowly 15th on the English Premier League standings this season but they are at least No 1 in one category.
According to a study commissioned by a British gambling website, Arsenal’s stars spend more on their cars than players from any other EPL club.
An average the Gunners each fork out £243,030 ($428,000) on their vehicles. Arsenal’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Tottenham’s Son Heung-Min drive the priciest cars in the study — both owning a 499 Ferrari LaFerrari, estimated to cost $2m.
Fulham players spend least on their cars — a measly £45,000 ($80,000).
BC’s tip of the week
Was the senior partner in Hawkes Racing, the reclusive trainer John, sighted at the team’s Flemington stables this week?
Does this bode well for Bandersnatch — No 1 in Race 7? Brendan Cormick thinks so.
mcloughlins@
theaustralian.com.au
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