Indian-origin Harvard-educated tech entrepreneur Arjun Verma says a simple idea born between two university cricket clubs has evolved into a world-first innovation now being trialled in Australia’s grassroots game.
Darwin’s premier women’s cricket competition has become the first grade league in the country to introduce an artificial intelligence-based umpire review system, with Verma’s Fulltrack AI at the centre of the breakthrough.
The system, currently being trialled in Darwin, allows players to challenge LBW decisions using a chest-mounted camera that tracks ball trajectory and predicts whether it would have hit the stumps.
But according to Fulltrack AI co-founder and chief executive Verma, the journey began five years ago in a small park in Cambridge, Massachusetts, when captains from the Harvard and MIT cricket clubs discussed creating a simple, phone-based Decision Review System (DRS) for local matches.
Verma said the original idea was driven by frustration among amateur cricketers over incorrect umpiring decisions. However, early technological and market limitations forced the concept to evolve into a broader high-performance analytics platform used by professional teams.
Over time, the platform expanded to include AI-generated video highlights, pitch maps, ball speed, swing and spin analysis, batting metrics and player development dashboards.
As the technology matured and demand from grassroots cricket grew, the team returned to its original vision of creating an accessible review system for club-level matches.
Verma told ABC that the current version of Fulltrack AI combines 2D ball detection with physics-based modelling to reconstruct a 3D ball path, using data from roughly one million recorded deliveries. While not as precise as elite multi-camera systems, he said it delivers reliable outcomes at a fraction of the cost.
The Darwin trial allows each team two challenges per innings, with early results showing the system reinforces on-field decisions in the majority of cases.
PINT captain Amy Yates told ABC that the ability to review decisions adds fairness in a format where players get limited opportunities. At the same time, coach Will Glover highlighted the value of the data insights for player development.
NT Cricket officials added that the trial also aims to reduce disputes in self-umpired matches and encourage more people to take up officiating roles.
With interest already emerging from Cricket Australia and other competitions, Verma said the milestone marks a return to the company’s founding purpose, using technology to make cricket fairer and more accessible at every level.
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