Instead of using stairs, now we use elevator to reach our office premises. Sheets and documents of paper have now been replaced with e-documents and excel sheets. Binded books are now read on Kindles and Tablets. We use automated payment options like credit cards to pay for the most mundane items. To sum up, technology has gone on to become an integral part of our daily lives, simplifying things on the go, and professional sport is no exception.
Technology helps accumulate data from every single second of the game, thereby radically ameliorating individual athlete performance and the overall gaming experience. Data gathered from the game helps leverage valuable insights, which subsequently helps create new and innovative strategies to further boost players’ performance and fan engagement.
From soccer to tennis, baseball to Cricket, advancing technologies has left a striking footprint upon the game. Speaking of cricket, one company which aims at transfiguring the way cricket is played by incorporating technology is Speculur Technology Solutions Pvt. Ltd. The subsidiary company of Gammes Unlimited, Speculur Technology strives to fulfil its mission of delivering a suite of products and technology solutions that inspires athletes and engages fans closer to the game. “…get Closer to the game; get Better at the game; get Smarter at the game; and get Deeper in the game,” is how the Founder and CEO of Speculur, Atul Srivastava, sums it up.
The Start of a New Beginning
Incepting as a talent management firm, Gammes Unlimited has had an intimate relationship with the International Cricket Council. The parent company has worked hand-in-hand with many ICC related events, including the 2015 World Cup and the 2017 Champions Trophy, eventually striking a licensing deal with International cricket body in 2015. During this time, as the CEO of the company, Atul decided to leverage the potential of technology into Cricket. After spending three years of rigorous and tiring efforts in the R&D process, Speculur Technology was born.
“We put the sensor through various layers of testing. We got players from the streets all the way up to the international level to try this product. We have tested for Strength, Convenience, Usability & real-time match scenarios.” It was an ambiguous dream at first, leading towards hectic and draining times but it was all worth the grind eventually.
Headquartered at the heart of India’s Silicon Valley, Bangalore, Speculur’s distribution network spreads across global boundaries. The company strives to introduce a disruptive change within the Sporting landscape by developing products that re-defines the consumption experience of spectators, athletes, coaches, etc.
Not just a Product
As a product, Speculur boasts the ability to minutely analyze each and every single move, from bat path to bat speed with its Batsense product. This ability is all confined to one beautifully constructed sensor, which sits comfortably atop of a cricketer’s bat. “It’s now time to make your bat a smart bat. A bat that tells you your flaws in real time & makes sure that you are getting better every time you step out to play.”
Other than Batsense, Gaames Speculur also offers a wide-range of other products within the sporting vertical. Slated to release in the near future are the helmetSense, ShoeSense and the BallSense. The resolute team of professionals backed with Atul’s immaculate experience have extensively tested and sharpened its corners to bring-forward these innovative and effective products to the cricketing industry.
Both amateurs and professional athletes have backed the product for its insightful value addition to their gaming style and technique. Karun Nair, an Indian International Cricketer, exclaims “Every Cricketer goes through a rough patch of form & also a good run of form. I think it’ll be interesting to see how we can effectively use this product to record data on either occasions & also to compare this data. This will help us improve & also work on those areas which need improvement.” Another recognized Indian Cricketer, Parthiv Patel, too mentioned “I am very impressed with the ‘Max Bat Speed’ feature in Speculur. The bat speed comes in really handy in T20’s & tournaments like IPL. We can set targets to improve our bat speed & this could be a great exercise before the start of a T20 tournament.”
The company aims at providing every cricketer, amateur, and professional a closer watch into their game. The product allows recording of player’s flaws in real-time and help them be better at their game.
At an amateur level, the Coach Mode feature is one that has grabbed the attention of many grassroot cricketing academics and institutions. It allows every coach to be in constant connection with their student via a common application. Thus, whenever the student goes out to play, the coach would be able to track him live. Coaches can even set goals or targets to assess the progress of a player and draft a real-time report card.
Speaking about this feature, Atul asserts “We have introduced the coach mode as an integral part of this product. The Coach mode enables the coaches to track his pupil’s game in real time. He can send back notes to the player about his innings/or practice sessions. He can also set targets for players for different sessions to improve on a certain skill. Features like this is what makes it stand out from the rest.”
In addition to all these, the products have also been tested in real-match situations, to grab a fair understanding of its efficiency.
Get Closer to what you Know!
Speculur’s caption, “Play what you know, Know what you play,” is an apt representation of what the company strives to deliver. “It’s a simple thought,” mentions Atul.
He adds “…you have played this game so long, it’s time to know & get closer to knowing how you have played. There is a motivation involved here, a scope to improve yourself every passing day, the push to compete with yourself before you face the world.”
Speculur is not just an incredibly advanced sensor which records every pulse of the shot, rather it is a product of negligible size, making it easy to use. It fits perfectly on top of a cricket bat, without disturbing the weight of the bat or the batsmen having it on.
Translating a Vision into a Reality
With an undying passion for the game of cricket, alluring him into the world of sports, Atul Srivastava formed Gammes Unlimited, a talent management company, back in 2006.
At that time, he signed the whole of India’s World Cup winning U-19 team, which included the likes of Virat Kohli and others. Gaames Unlimited still manages some of India’s finest talents like Karun Nair, Manish Pandey, Murali Vijay, Parthiv Patel, and others. The company later expanded its business network and team of expertise, which gave Atul and Co. the needed confidence to join hands with the ICC.
In 2015, the company signed up with the ICC as its Licensing Partner in India, Middle-east, and the USA. The company continues to work with ICC and plans on extending its relation with the cricket governing body till 2023.
The evolution of Speculur Technology was Atul’s dream — to include technology into cricket, a need of the hour for a game that relies so heavily on technique. Building the need for precision in everything, even including a single shot, led the company to inception.
Atul concludes by saying, “Keen interest in sports as well as large networks and associates is the key to entering into this organization.”
Source :-The 10 Most Promising Sports Solution Providers 2018
