Video bowled the media star

New Zealand Herald reporter Steve deane tries out the new real-life cricket bowling simulator at Auckland Cricket indoor training centre at Eden Park. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Stumps fly as Herald man takes on Auckland Cricket’s new high-tech bowling machine

Brett Randell has me pinned down. The deliveries the under-19 international cricketer has been directing my way at an increasingly alarming pace have either flown past off stump or been met by a hurried forward defensive prod.

Despite having produced a decent Chris Martin impression, I survive Randell's opening salvo. So I'm down but remarkably not yet out when Auckland Aces all-rounder Matt Quinn comes steaming in. The right armer's run-up isn't all that intimidating, so I fancy my chances of giving myself a little room and lofting him inside out over cover.

Oh dear. Quinn's 137km/h thunderbolt sends my stumps flying everywhere. But my wicket won't be a memorable one for the up-and-coming star - and not just because I'm rubbish. The bowler who just splattered my stumps was merely a video version of Quinn.

The ball I didn't get anywhere near hitting, however, was very real. Eight years after Nintendo's Wii system revolutionised gaming by linking players' real life movements to those on a video screen, the concept has been adapted to create a high-tech training system.

Auckland Cricket's $80,000 Probatter PX2 pretty much reverses the Wii format - instead of humans manipulating projectiles around a video screen, the video screen fires projectiles at the human. It's cool, if a little weird.

The jury is still out on how effective it will prove as a training aid, but so far, so good.

Randell, who plays for Eden Roskill, says the "live training" element provided by the Probatter is a step up from a standard bowling machine. With its accuracy, speed and variety of deliveries, the Probatter can effectively mimic any bowler in the world of whom there is video footage. At elite level, it is hoped it will help players school up on their opponents. Auckland Cricket is hoping its new toy - at Eden Park - becomes widely used by the cricketing community.