The world’s first quantum bowler?

Chris Hunter June 20

The UQ net facility would not be the location that might immediately spring to mind if you were looking for the “next big thing” in cricket. However it is here, every other Sunday morning, that you will find Brad “95” Tonkes rolling the arm over, perfecting a new style of spin bowling that might just revolutionise the game.

“Your classical spin bowlers, Warnie, Chucker, ****$%^& and all the rest, they’re on the way out”, the likeable Doctor of Philosophy asserts. A big call it would seem, but if Tonkes is right, and his new quantum approach to this ancient art is a hit where it really matters (on the field), Newtonian spinners might well be a thing of the past. So what’s the difference?

“Take Warnie for instance. His variations are based on spinning the ball so it does certain things deterministically, like his wrong’un, say. He bowls it from the back of the hand and it spins towards the right-hander’s leg stump.” Too predictable, too passé for the man known as “Bigfella”. 

Instead, Tonkes makes use of the realm of Quantum Mechanics. Each variation in the big man’s arsenal is not a variation in the classical sense, but rather a probability distribution over his own unique collection of wicket taking possibilities. “So the Flapper is just a wave function really, applied to legspin”, Tonkes explains. The real beauty of his approach is that even if a batsman knew a priori the delivery that was being bowled together with its distribution, he would have to calculate the binomial sum on the fly to even begin thinking about “picking” Tonkes. “And even then it’s only a probability”, Tonkes says with an air of satisfaction. Showing off his inimitable sense of humour, Tonkes even nominates a classical variation with each delivery he bowls – “just to confuse them”, he winks.

Probability Distribution for the Flapper

Tonkes’ story is the stuff of folklore – emigrating from the Netherlands at the age of 4 to the new world of New South Wales, Tonkes eventually ended up in Brisbane, where he studied towards a PhD in Artificial Intelligence. It was here, in the tranquil surrounds of grad school, that Tonkes would both develop his interest in applied sports physics, and more importantly, meet his future Rain Gods captain. “He always was interested in that sort of stuff”, “Rake” Colvin comments gruffly, “but I would prefer him to stick to hitting opposition openers off six steps”.

Tonkes, however, remains undeterred. And that might just have to do with his trump card, l’autre. Literally meaning “the other” in French, it is believed this weapon was first developed by Napoleon Bonaparte during his time in exile on the island of Saint Helena. Rumours persist that it was rediscovered by Greg Matthews who, fearful of the damage it might do to the game, never bowled it in a competitive match. “95” explains: “L’autre can be understood via the many-worlds hypothesis – it is essentially all of the normal variations (slipper, flapper, screamer, flumper, and scraper) bowled simultaneously, causing the wave function to collapse optimally”. The delivery sounds like a devil to play, “and pretty difficult to bowl – it gives the shoulder a real twinge”, comments the big spinner ruefully. 

As I turn to leave, I hear the unmistakable whir of another flumper screaming into the stumps of one of his unfortunate teammates. It seems that, whether or not Tonkes manages to pitch l’autre under match conditions, the art of spin bowling may be about to change forever.   

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