From eye movements to actions: how batsmen hit the ball

In cricket, a batsman watches a fast bowler's ball come toward him at a hig h and unpredictable speed, bouncing off ground of uncertain hardness. Altho ugh he views the trajectory for little more than half a second, he can accu rately judge where and when the bail will reach him. Batsmen's eye movement s monitor the moment when the ball is released, make a predictive saccade t o the place where they expect it to hit the ground, wait for it to bounce, and follow its trajectory for 100-200 ms after the bounce. We show how info rmation provided by these fixations may allow precise prediction of the bal l's timing and placement. Comparing players with different skill levels, we found that a short latency for the first saccade distinguished good from p oor batsmen, and that a cricket player's eye movement strategy contributes to his skill in the game.