Cricinfo - Blogs - Rob's Lobs - Time to crunch more numbers

Not before time, the introduction of the abbreviated, faster format gave the Bearded Wonder and his pals more work to do. Over the past decade or so, happily, new ground has been tilled and ploughed. Economy and strike rates have emerged as crucial arbiters, indicative of a changing landscape, not to mention one-on-one details, such as how Sachin Tendulkar, say, has fared against Shane Warne. All of which has rendered conventional averages – which are anti-contextual, taking no account of the quality of the opposition or the state of the match – less insightful or relevant.

Now, thanks primarily to the broadcasters’ thirst for the telling stat, we have a whole new ball game: longest six, most dot-balls, even speed off the bat.

The last of these has been the most revealing. Hoary old cliché has it that the faster the delivery, the faster it leaves the bat. Bugger that. Even when Matthew Hayden was blitzing and bullying the Indian bowlers on Saturday the pace at which the ball was leaving that beefy blade never exceeded 130kph. Sreesanth and RP Singh, though, were consistently bowling at 140kph-plus.

What has been neglected, however, has been a statistic that continues, inexplicably, to be ignored, namely bat speed. Granted, the logistics may well be too tricky for those cameras to measure, although it is hard to see why. The importance of such figures cannot be underestimated. After all, a batsman’s ability to respond to length, line and deviation is intrinsic, surely, to his success – or otherwise.

The ability to play late, to choose one’s shot at the last possible instant, has long been acknowledged as a barometer of batsmanship. The genius of Brian Lara was not so much his repertoire of strokes, command of angles and delicacy of touch, but that he could adjust his stroke according to the ball’s behaviour through the air or off the pitch.

Is it asking too much for the broadcasters and number-crunchers to join forces and find a way of assessing this? Come on, chaps, get your fingers out.

Interesting article. I am from an electronics background and have a suggestion , maybe a stupid one.Can we not place an accelerometer and a gyroscope (MEMS type sensors) in a cricket bat itself powered by a small battery and then transmit that data wirelessly.They are used in some game remotes for instance. That should give the speed of the bat , even the exact trajectory the bat takes. It could be embedded well inside the bat , or maybe on the back side on the surface , with some shock absorbing material.In fact could be a good weekend project. (or maybe several weekends)We could do it with the ball and place such a system inside the ball and thus get a more precise trajectory of the swing , seam etc.., making Hawkeye more accurate than what is possible using multiple camera angles and image processing to calculate a 3d trajectory.

Neeraj agreed , a tweak to the laws would be needed for it to work , but as it doesnt really result in any undue advantage to the batsman , i dont see why it cannot be accommodated.It could be made as a small low profile use and throw clip on module to be attached to the bat and not involve the bat manufacturer at all.Potentially it could also measure snicks/edges using acoustic / vibration methods , thus making a more reliable snickometer .

Indeed, Lokesh. You are verily true in your observation. However, your observation does nothing to prove nor disprove the assertion that "the faster the ball, the faster it leaves the bat".

Indeed, to either prove or disprove this, you would need to check the stats of shots hit of a 60 mph delivery vs a 140 mph delivery.

Obviously, you don't need stats to conclude that the assertion is true - a basic grasp on physics is enough.

I am not sure how you could devise a "Hawk eye" system to accurately track a bat's position over time. The bat can be hidden behind the player away from the camera's field of view when playing a hook , besides being very difficult to isolate and pick in the background.Furthermore bats come in various shapes and sizes. A red ball is significantly easier to pick. I guess you could have N number of strategically placed cameras , some excellent software to make the Hawkeye system for bat trajectory work, but if it was that easy it would have been done already.A miniature lightweight clip on module which i proposed earlier , costing no more than 20usd , could work better for this . Something like a chewing gum stuck behind your bat.If the batsman gets paid to advertise the chips used inside the module or the manufacturer of the module on the sticker , I am sure he will agree to it.

I don't understand how some of these measurements are made, such as the distance a ball hit for six travels. If it lands on the roof of the stadium, do they calculate how far it WOULD have gone if the structure had not got in the way? Otherwise it is meaningless, and I can't see them calculating atmospheric resistance, etc. As for bat speed, it would be interesting, but not particularly helpful as I'm sure a fine edge by RP Singh off Brett Lee would travel faster than a drive by Yuvaraj off the same bowler. Now what would be really useful (and fun) is if someone could stick some electrodes or whatever in Shreesanth's (or Shoaib's) head which would send information to a psychiatrist (who would be an essential member of the support staff) who could read it off his laptop, communicate with the captain, and run onto the field with the neurological equivalent of the magic spray!!

Hopefully this doesn't go over anyones head but here is a basic way to work out how far a 6 went.

It is based on how far the ball would have gone. Basically the ball travels in a parabolic shape, and as such it's path is symetrical. This means that if you know the turning point, or how far it travels before it starts going down rather than up, you multiply that didtance by 2, and you have the distance that the 6 went.

Great idea, Rohit. I see no reason why this cannot be done without affecting the bat.
To clarify the faster the ball issue, this is high school physics. The ball has kinetic energy (mass x speed), the bat has kinetic energy (mass x speed)in the opposite direction, the kinetic energy of the bat must exceed the kinetic energy of the ball to prevent the ball from hitting the bat backwards, therefore, the bat must first take the kinetic energy of the ball speed, before it can give it kinetic energy in the opposite direction. I.e. the slower the ball, the further it will go with the same bat speed.

Craig- I am not sure that the physics behind the reasoning is entirely accurate.

i) The bat is held by the batsman and is supported by his body mass. Also the bat is 'elastic' in nature. It is quite possible to have zero bat speed and have the ball ricochet off it at a non-zero speed (Backfoot defensive stroke for instance)

ii) The trajectory of the bat describes an arc. And the energy transferred from the bat to the ball depends upon the point at which the ball strikes the bat (Intuitively there is better timing if the ball strikes the meat of the bat)

iii) Kinetic energy is 1/2 * (mass) * (speed)^2 :-)

Can I just make a suggestion to everyone here? The phrase 'the faster the ball, the faster it leaves the bat' does not mean the ball will leave the bat travelling faster than it did when it reached the bat. It means that the faster a bowler delivers a ball, the faster it will travel from the middle of the bat. For example, the ball will tend to travel faster from, say, Hayden's bat when he is facing Sreesanth than when he is facing Kartik.

The speed at which the ball travels off the bat has more to do with the timing of the stroke and the comparative pace of the bowler. A well-timed shot from Flintoff will travel faster than a similarly-timed shot from Monty.

For the people talking about 'pure physics': the ball doesn't consistently travel faster from the bat than it is when it reaches the bat - there are a huge number of variables; e.g. where it makes contact on the bat, the speed of the bat, the humidity of the air, the hardness of the ball, the weight of the bat, and other factors.

All this is besides the point, however, because cricket is a sport - it is designed for entertainment - and it is more enjoyable to watch sport when one can marvel at the prowess of the players without knowing every detail of the manner in which they are achieving that level of skill.

I totally agree with Tommy's interpretation and without going into a mathematical model, we can easily conduct a simple experiment,
i) Ask Murali and Bret Lee to bowl to a wall and we all know what will happen off the wall.
ii) Ask a person to hold a bat firmly (hypothetically with infinite strength) and ask the two bowlers to send down their deliveries and again we know what will happen off the bat (once they hit at their respective speeds)
(some reading into transfer of momentum will give better understandng)

Now there are many factors which govern the speed of the ball off the bat.
i) The firmness of the grip
ii) The speed with which the bat came down
iii) The place it was struck on the bat
iv) Batsmen's stance which will govern the transfer of KE to the ball
and I might be omitting out a few more.

Anyway I have just stated a few scientific facts.

Regarding Rohit's suggestion, I totally agree that its doable rather it should be done, and I think to develop that idea the hardware is already there, grab hold of the Wii, strap on the controller or both on a bat and ask Nintendo to give us the Wii Softwar Development Kit (because we won't be making money off it) I am sure they will be gracious enough and maybe the profits could be split.

I would love to do it but time is what I don't have.