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National Cricket Centre

23 Oct 2014

National Cricket Performance Centre at Loughborough University becomes ICC-accredited testing centre

National Cricket Centre

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has announced that the National Cricket Performance Centre (NCPC) at Loughborough University has been accredited as an ICC centre for testing suspected illegal bowling actions.

The NCPC is the fourth facility to be accredited for this purpose by the ICC, joining Cardiff Metropolitan University, Cricket Australia’s National Cricket Centre (Brisbane) and the Sri Ramachandra University (Chennai).

The ICC has provided its testing protocol, which includes a suite of testing equipment and software, to all four accredited centres, thereby ensuring a consistent and more accessible testing program for international and domestic bowlers across the different facilities and countries.

Loughborough University’s Dr Mark King will act as the lead Human Movement Specialist in all testing cases at the NCPC, which can take place with immediate effect.  In addition to testing bowlers on behalf of the ICC, the ICC protocols can also be used to test bowlers on behalf of the ECB and other Boards.  

ECB Acting Chief Executive, Brian Havill, said: “We are absolutely delighted that the National Cricket Performance Centre at Loughborough University has been accredited by the ICC as a testing centre for suspected illegal bowling actions.

“The ECB is committed to assisting the ICC in tackling the issue of illegal bowling actions in international cricket, and it is superb news that the NCPC’s facilities, equipment and expertise through Dr Mark King and Loughborough University can be utilised for this purpose.”

In becoming an ICC-accredited testing centre, the NCPC was assessed against a range of criteria, including having an indoor space large enough to allow a player to bowl off his or her full run-up; a motion analysis system with a minimum of 12 high speed cameras capable of producing three-dimensional data; suitably qualified personnel, experienced in using such systems; and implementing the ICC testing protocol.

Notes for editors

Article reference number: October News

The National Cricket Performance Centre (NCPC) at Loughborough University was opened in 2003, and is the training base for all the ECB representative teams – from the England men’s team to junior England women’s teams.  The facility provides an all-year-round centre to benefit cricket as a whole.

Dr Mark King graduated from Loughborough in 1993 with a Joint Honours degree in Sports Science and Mathematics.  After gaining a PhD in the field of computer simulation of dynamic jumping he worked as a Research Associate in the Departments of Sports Science and Manufacturing Engineering.  In July 1999 Dr King was appointed as Lecturer in Sports Biomechanics at Loughborough, promoted to Senior Lecturer in Sports Biomechanics in 2006 and then Reader in Sports Biomechanics in 2012.

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