RCB To Use Artificial Intelligence To Find Talent For Women's Premier League: Mike Hesson

The Royal Challengers Bangalore women's team is set to go big on Artificial Intelligence (AI) to unearth talent from far corners of the country, their director of cricket Mike Hesson said on Thursday. While the team management will not discard the time-tested method of sending scouts to unearth promising talent, RCB will also deploy AI technology to supplement their efforts. "We think our scouting needs to go a little bit deeper than sending regular scouts to tournaments. There's a lot of untapped talent and potential throughout the whole country," Hesson said at a press conference ahead of the Women's Premier League (WPL).

"So, we have an artificial intelligence system, where we look at some key metrics. From a bowling perspective, it will be around pace. From a batting perspective, it will be around different positions that they get into. Once we identify talent there, we can bring them into camps or we can go and watch them at specific tournaments," he added.

Hesson said the RCB are looking to spot talent at a very young age in order to train and prepare them adequately.

"We're trying to look far beyond just the mainstream tournaments or first-class cricket or state cricket. We're trying to look at underage talent, talent from the extremities of the country, people that potentially aren't in teams already," he said.

"The players we're looking at might be a year away from actually being a part of the RCB. But we can identify them, we can watch them over a period of time and just see how they develop. That's certainly how we also operate in both the men's and women's programme," Hesson said.

RCB might have put up an enviable roster with Ellyse Perry, Megan Schutt, Heather Knight and Dane van Niekerk in its ranks but