Bola Trueman

"Working on the BOLA machine as a batsman is something we do all day and every day and to put a different component to it makes it a little bit more exciting and a little bit more real," says Nick Compton. The TrueMan is electromechanically active and programmable by any Wi-Fi enabled device (tablet, phone or laptop) by downloading the BOLA app. All the machines functions (line, length, speed and swing) can then be manipulated and saved as individual balls, overs or spells. They can then be used as selected or 'shuffled' to produce random sequences. The bowler animations can be changed at any time and can be matched with any number of deliveries.

"I would definitely recommend it to club cricketers and guys willing to get out there and practice facing different types of deliveries and also not being able to set up to a particular delivery," said Nick Compton. "I think it's great that you can actually get that visual, really see that guy running in and get your timings from that." The TrueMan can be speedily set up by one person and can be easily wheeled through a normal one metre doorway. The Machine's frame will compress itself to fit under a standard 2.05 metre door height so that storage away from a playing area is never a problem.