Key Players and Key Groups in Teams

Using data for 2008-2009, we determine winning strategies for the game in two different formats: 50-over one-day internationals and 20-over games from the Indian Premier League and Twenty20 Internationals. We find that attacking batting and defensive bowling outperform all other strate- gies in determining the probability of winning in both formats despite the thirty over difference between them. Moreover, in both versions of the game, good elding turns out to be an important complement to these two strategies. We speculate that this will have implications for the future of cricket, especially for the popularity of formats and the composition of teams.

Proceedings of Mathsport international 2017 conference

Proceedings of MathSport International 2017 Conference, held in the Botanical Garden of the University of Padua, June 26-28, 2017. MathSport International organizes biennial conferences dedicated to all topics where mathematics and sport meet. Topics include: performance measures, optimization of sports performance, statistics and probability models, mathematical and physical models in sports, competitive strategies, statistics and probability match outcome models, optimal tournament design and scheduling, decision support systems, analysis of rules and adjudication, econometrics in sport, analysis of sporting technologies, financial valuation in sport, e-sports (gaming), betting and sports

To Bat or Not to Bat: An Examination of Contest Rules in Day-night Limited Overs Cricket

The tradition of tossing a coin to decide who bats first in a cricket match introduces a randomly-assigned advantage to one team that is unique in sporting contests. In this paper we develop previous work on this issue by examining the impact of the toss on outcomes of day-night one day international games explicitly allowing for relative team quality. We estimate conditional logit models of outcomes using data from day-night internationals played between 1979 and 2005. Other things equal, we find that winning the toss and batting increases the probability of winning by 31%. In contrast, winning the toss does not appear to confer any advantage if the team choose to bowl first.cricket, contest rules, match results, competitive balance, outcome uncertainty

A Method for Inferring Batting Conditions in ODI Cricket from Historical Data

This paper is part of a wider research programme using a dynamic-programming approach to modelling the choices about the amount of risk to take by batting and bowling teams in One Day International cricket. An important confounding variable in this analysis is the ground conditions (size of ground, nature of pitch and weather conditions) that affect how many runs can be scored for a given amount of risk. This variable does not exist in our historical data set and would regardless be very difficult to accurately observe on the day of a match. In this paper, we consider a way of estimating a distribution for the ground conditions using only the information contained in the first-innings score and the result of the match. The approach uses this information to estimate the importance of ground conditions in the determination of first innings total scores. We assume a functional form for a model of first innings scores and we estimate the parameters of our model using Monte Carlo methods. We test the impact of a significant rule change and we apply our findings to selected matches before and after the new rules came into play.ODI Cricket; Batting Conditions; Nuisance Variable

The transformative potential of reflective diaries for elite English cricketers

The sport of cricket has a history of its players suffering from mental health issues. The psychological study of cricket and, in particular, the attendant demands of participating at an elite level has not previously received rigorous academic attention. This study explored ten elite male cricketers’ experiences of keeping a daily reflective diary for one month during the competitive season. The aim was to assess how valuable qualitative diaries are in this field. Participants were interviewed regarding their appraisal of the methodology as a self‐help tool that could assist coping with performance pressures and wider life challenges. Three outcomes were revealed: first, that diary keeping was an effective opportunity to reflect upon the past and enhance one’s self (both as an individual and a performer); second, that diary keeping acted as a form of release that allowed participants to progress; and third, that diary keeping allowed participants to discover personal patterns of success that increased the likeliness of optimum performance

Inside the brain of an elite athlete: The neural processes that support high achievement in sports

Events like the World Championships in athletics and the Olympic Games raise the public profile of competitive sports. They may also leave us wondering what sets the competitors in these events apart from those of us who simply watch. Here we attempt to link neural and cognitive processes that have been found to be important for elite performance with computational and physiological theories inspired by much simpler laboratory tasks. In this way we hope to inspire neuroscientists to consider how their basic research might help to explain sporting skill at the highest levels of performance

To lead or not to lead : analysis of the sprint in track cycling

This paper uses a statistical analysis of match sprint outcomes to guide tactical decisions in this highly tactical contest and to provide competitors and coaches with a potential, marginal gain. Logistic regression models are developed to predict the probability of the leading rider winning at different points of the race, based on how the race proceeds up to each point. Key tactics are successfully identified from the models, including how the leading rider might hold the lead and how the following rider might optimise overtaking

Sports attendance: A survey of the Literature 1973-2007

Introduction – 1. Theoretical aspects – 2. Demand definition, data andempirical model – 3. Determinants of attendance (I): Economical aspects – 4.Determinants of attendance (II): Expected quality – 5. Determinants of attendance(III): Uncertainty of outcome – 6. Determinants of attendance (IV): Opportunity cost and other factors – Conclusions – Abstract In this paper, we show a review of the empirical analysis literature about the factors that explain attendance to the stadiums on different sports, mainly in the case of professional sports. Apart from the traditional economic determinants of demand (attendance), the sports events in which the performers have more quality and in those which exists uncertainty of outcome of the match or the championship, have a larger number of spectators. On the other hand, these are not the only factors that explain attendance. Variables that capture the opportunity cost of going to the stadium and other determinants, like unobservable factors associated to the contender teams, also have relevance at the time of analyzing this side of the demand related to professional teams of sports eventsAttendance, elasticity, quality, uncertainty of outcome

Locomotion in Response to Shifting Climate Zones: Not So Fast

Although a species’ locomotor capacity is suggestive of its ability to escape global climate change, such a suggestion is not necessarily straightforward. Species vary substantially in locomotor capacity, both ontogenetically and within/among populations, and much of this variation has a genetic basis. Accordingly, locomotor capacity can and does evolve rapidly, as selection experiments demonstrate. Importantly, even though this evolution of locomotor capacity may be rapid enough to escape changing climate, genetic correlations among traits (often due to pleiotropy) are such that successful or rapid dispersers are often limited in colonization or reproductive ability, which may be viewed as a trade-off. The nuanced assessment of this variation and evolution is reviewed for well-studied models: salmon, flying versus flightless insects, rodents undergoing experimental evolution, and metapopulations of butterflies. This work reveals how integration of physiology with population biology and functional genomics can be especially informative