Popular: ICC rankings | Bangladesh Premier League | A Zia
It Figures

| Of ducks and drakes »
November 9, 2007
Posted by S Rajesh on 11/09/2007 in About
A blog for the number nerds

Cricket, more than almost any other sport, lends itself perfectly to analyses by numbers. The game has enough stats to satiate the most voracious appetite but there are so many delightfully different ways of looking at them that there’s always scope for debates, arguments and opinions. It Figures is a forum to rake up all those arguments, but also to delight in the quirks of all the trivia that so much stats can throw up. Read on ...

Comments (3)
Posted by: Sanjeev at November 11, 2007 9:48 PM

A great addition to Cricinfo. I love trivia, especially when it comes to cricket trivia. S Rajesh does great analysis on the site and I look forward to more number crunching of obscure and interesting factoids and trivia at this blog in the future.

Posted by: Paul at January 15, 2008 9:06 AM

I'm not a statistician by any means, so this may be faulty for any number of reasons, but I've always wondered whether there is a statistical way to analyse disputes about bowlers who are argued to have taken "easy wickets" either against the tail or weaker teams.

Could this be done by calculating the mean of the career averages of each batsman dismissed by a given bowler to give a "wicket value" figure, and then multiplying by career wickets for that bowler? Career batting average seems the fairest approach, as opposed to the batsman's average at the time of dismissal, as it will iron out some of the anomalies of dismissing people in their first innings in cricket (and should make the number crunching somewhat easier).

Admittedly, you can't get the final figure for any bowler until not only they have retired, but every batsman that they ever dismissed as well, but presumably you could analyse the current figures for all bowlers with 400+ career wickets.

Posted by: Prakash at February 11, 2008 9:55 AM

Is it possible to quantify who were the better fielders are based on the statistics that are available? ie catches, stumpings and possibly run outs

Name: Email Address:
Comments: characters left
Y Anantha Narayanan
Y Anantha NarayananY Anantha Narayanan has over 35 years of IT background. Over the past 15 years, he has been concentrating on Cricket analysis and software development. He has been involved with StumpVision, Wisden, Hallmark Software and his own site www.thirdslip.com during this period.
David Barry
David BarryDavid Barry was cricket-starved when teaching English in France, and study of cricket stats was his only way to stay sane. He is now back in Brisbane, Australia, and working towards a PhD in Physics. He once played for the worst team in the G-division of Muscat's cricket league.
Rajesh
RajeshRajesh After doing an MBA in marketing and working in an advertising agency, S Rajesh decided that his skills might be put to better use by number-crunching on cricket. He hasn’t regretted that decision in the last six years, and edits the Numbers Game column on cricinfo.com every Friday.
Rajesh Kumar
Rajesh KumarRajesh Kumar A product of Delhi's Shri Ram College of Commerce, Rajesh Kumar pursued cricket statistics at an early age before joining a nationalised bank, where he served for over two decades. He opted for a VRS nine years back, and hasn't regretted that decision. Apart from being a regular contributor to the Wisden Cricketers' Almanack over the years, Rajesh brought out five World Cup editions for Australia's Peter Murray. He has assisted Bill Frindall from 1980 till his death in January 2009 for the publications of various editions of The Wisden Book of Test Cricket, The Guinness Book of Cricket Facts and Feats, The Wisden Book of Cricket Records, Limited-Overs International Cricket and Playfair Cricket Annual.
Gabriel Rogers
Gabriel RogersGabriel Rogers was born on the ninety-somethingth birthday of Test cricket, and his fate may well have been sealed from that moment. His day-job revolves around medical statistics, and he is interested in applying principles from the field to the analysis of cricket data. Gabriel has spent most of his life in the south-west of England, but has recently moved to Manchester; he hasn't quite worked out yet whether living in a city with a Test ground is adequate compensation for moving away from his beloved Somerset CCC.
Ric Finlay
Ric FinlayRic Finlay Having just taken early retirement as a Mathematics teacher in Hobart, Ric Finlay now fully devotes his time to recording cricket, both past and present, for the popular CSW cricket database, along with his colleague David Fitzgerald (www.tastats.com.au). His interest in the game is inversely proportional to his ability as a player, but he did once score a century after being dropped at 3 and running out three of his team-mates. His first memory of international cricket is the 1962-63 MCC tour of Australia, described as one of the most boring ever. Totally fascinated, he was instantly hooked, and has never looked back. Author of three books on cricket of a historical nature, he has provided statistics and scored for radio and television cricket coverage since 1983.
Latest News
Specials
Sitemap  |  Feedback  |  RSS  |  About Us  |  Career  |  Privacy Policy  |  Terms of Use
© ESPN EMEA Ltd