Integration of AI in Hinterland Scouting Eases Out Refinement of Talents, RCB Has Set up a Benchmark – Ludimos, RCB’s AI-partner

Jagruti Panda: Avinash Singh, a pace prodigy from Jammu and Kashmir was relatively an unknown commodity until 16th December, 2022 – the evening which changed his fortune as he was picked up at thrice his base amount of 20 lakhs in IPL 2023 mini-auctions, by Royal Challengers Bangalore. His pace currently clocks at 140+kmph but he is quite optimistic about reaching 150kmph soon.

To get more insights into how hinterland scouting has paved way for sheer raw talents and what’s the role of Articifial Intelligence in it, we switch our focus to the Mr. Madan Rajagopal, Founder and CEO of Ludimos – AI partners of Royal Challengers Bangalore- who has shared details with regards to the role of AI in the process of scouting.

Kindly explain the role of Ludimos and how complicated was the process of Hinterland Scouting?

The RCB franchise has created a benchmark by integrating AI-based technology with scouting, which helped them with easier segregation and refinement of the best talents from remote areas in the country. We intimate the bowlers who have registered with us about the dates of trials via email and they are asked to come up for the trials.

The RCB team conducts basic trials and records their bowling action simply through smartphones. The videos are uploaded to Ludimos’ platform and the AI would generate four KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) for each ball i.e., ball speed, ball line, ball length and ball deviation and collectively these data points produce the pitch maps and beehive maps.

The Artificial Intelligence integrates the data along with the video and a smart dashboard is used to analyse, segregate and discover that pure raw talent. We are currently working upon generating KPIs for batsmen and we are expecting it to unfold soon.

When did Ludimos come on board?

Ludimos joined hands with RCB since 2021 and since then we have scouted for player in over 25 cities in India. The simplicity of use and the need for just a tripod and a smartphone paved way for running trials in multiple cities effectively and efficiently.

Right from day one, the synergies between us was great. We really understood the needs of the scouting team and were able to deliver a product and service that is of top notch and led to a great outcome last year.

ALSO READ || Exclusive || RCB aims to unearth hidden talents from remote India with Hinterland Scouting – Malolan Rangarajan

Cricket is experiencing massive evolution with regards to its popularity and existence of talent. How do we see the role of AI-powered technologies when we talk about searching talent from remote regions?

The foremost objective was to find special talents and provide them the right platform.  We seek to reach a multitude of players and the entire operation needs to be extremely smooth and simple. It’s highly unlikely for a human brain to decipher the bowling KPIs of thousands of bowlers who participate in the trials and scouting process and that’s where the role of AI comes into picture.

Together with AI there needs to be an easy way to search, filter, find and bookmark talents for effective scouting process, which Ludimos delivers.

How was the experience of working with Royal Challengers Bangalore. As I understand your team was not directly involved on the ground, but while examining the recordings and trails.

RCB franchise is quite innovative when it comes to the scouting process and it coincided with our vision to help as many aspiring cricketers reach the big stage. We have been in the process of scouting with RCB since 2021 and Avinash Singh from J&K this year is the outcome of AI based scouting and we can’t be happier as Singh is an exciting talent.

What are the other sports and athletic processes in which Hinterland Scouting can be useful? And what are the other projects in which Ludimos is involved in India?

Our next objective is to work on the KPIs for batters. Cricket is a complex game and it keeps on evolving with time. The challenge for us is to standardise KPIs. I can assure the readers that within a year, we will be ready with an AI based scouting process for batting.

ALSO READ || Exclusive || I have a financial backup now for my mother’s medical treatments – Delhi Capitals signee Mukesh Kumar on getting Rs. 5.5 crore bid in IPL auctions

As of now, our only focus is cricket but our technology is already being used in other sports as well. We have successfully started our process with bowling, our vision is to expand our AI to batting, fielding and wicket keeping side of Cricket.

ALSO READ || Exclusive || Want to emulate Yuvraj Singh’s performance at international stage – Vivrant Sharma, SRH’s new signee