I am often asked if playing VR cricket help improve your real life game. Well, to be honest it is very difficult for me to answer that question. I am not a coach anymore. I did my cricket coaching badges over 25 years ago, so my coaching days are well and truly behind me.
What can VR Cricket Help with?
What I can say is that I believe VR cricket can help with certain aspects of the game. With the unlimited overs mode on the VR cricket game iB Cricket, it is possible to learn to concentrate for long periods. If you are trying to condition yourself to leave everything outside off stump as an opening batsmen, then you are able to do this from the comfort of your own home.
Also, innings management can be another skill developed by using VR Cricket. Working out how many runs per over is required to win a match, or rotating the strike is something I have enjoyed doing whilst chasing down a big score.
I have heard other people suggest that it has also helped them to face fast bowling. Being able to develop a trigger movement against the quicks has helped them with footwork and getting in line of the ball.
Why Can VR NOT be 100% Cricket Practice?
For me the reason why I would never say for sure whether VR cricket can help improve your real life game is that there are no legs in VR. At present, there is no way of the VR headset knowing where your legs are. So LBW is not included in iB Cricket (or any other VR cricket game that I am aware of) at the moment. Who knows, maybe in a few years time, VR will be able to detect foot movement with leg attachements.
However, it is worth noting that stumpings are included in iB Cricket. The program can detect your head and hand positions so that stops for from just walking down the wicket at everything, and the wicketkeeper never misses a stumping, even in the Jonny Bairstow fashion.
To Summerise…
If I was still playing cricket in real life, then I would use VR cricket to help improve my game. I am happy to say that I have played shots in VR that I could not do in real life. ALSO, I was able to have a net practice session at BatFast in Nottingham.
It was the first time in nearly 15 years that I had batted in REAL LIFE. I was VERY happy to admit that after 5-10 minutes of batting in the nets, that my batting was better than it ever was. But that is just my experience with VR cricket.
I would also highly recommend buy a VR cricket bat. There is no way of being able to hold a Meta Quest controller with two hands. But with a VR cricket bat, you are able to attach it to a Meta Quest controller and hold it like a real cricket bat handle. It will also increase the realism of the game.