One year, One day – The miniskirt view!!

by Raja Baradwaj

When Navjot Sidhu said “Statistics are like miniskirts, they reveal more than what they hide”, he didn’t know that a lots of South Indians especially the Tamils were going to hate him for life. For, he revealed our best kept trade secret. We Tamils love statistics (Maths, in general) as much as we like miniskirts, the arousal factor is why.

I should thank Soulberry, Straight Point and Naked Cricket (arousal factor, remember!!) for making me look at the statistics. For one moment I thought I had my foot in mouth, having filed the story. But then Q was a bit reassuring, to say that I wasn’t wrong but absolutely off tangent!! I thought why not look into the miniskirt, err statistics? May be there was another interesting / revealing angle there?

So here I am with some interesting numbers.

Stats thanks to cricinfo

What do we see?

I have tried to look at each full member nations ODI record for an year, dating back from their latest ODI appearance

1. The matches each team played, the wins, losses, matches without any results

2. The runs scored by them in that period, the number of overs played and the run rate

3. Their Win – Loss ratio with respect to the total number of ODIs played, when they batted first and when they batted second

Takeouts

a) Number of games played:

England played the least number of games in one year, 17 games

Australia played the maximum, 28 games

Pakistan played 22, and they played the minnows (Bangladesh, Zimbabwe & Hongkong) 13 times and obviously they won each of those 13

b) Number of Wins

Overall Pakistan has the best of Win – Loss % - 81.82% wins. But 72% of the wins came from beating the minnows

Aussies have a 76% win record. Then come the Springboks, the black caps and the Indians

West Indies languish at the bottom of the table, this is in spite of the fact that they had the second maximum number of matches played against the minnows. Unfortunately the loss in the hands of Zimbabwe in Harare makes their records even sorer.

c) Number of loses

As expected it is West Indies & England who occupy the top of the table (for once they would be happy they are on top)

Surprisingly India come third (overall). If you ignore Pakistan's win against the minnows then they go to position 4 and Pakistan come 3

Pakistan are champs if you consider their overall record, with only 18% loses in the year. If their record against the minnows is ignored, even then they score a respectable 40%

d) Run rate

Pakistan top the list irrespective of minnows or monoliths

Aussies have the third lowest of run rates, but still have a better win – loss record. Do we remember the hare & the tortoise story?

e) Batting 1^st (Vs) 2^nd

Pakistan have a better record batting first (overall)

Australia are a better team as long as they bat first. They have a near dismal record batting second.

New Zealand & Pakistan (overall) are champs as long as they bat second. New Zealand seem to have a major problem setting targets.

It doesn’t matter if India bat first or second. What matters is whether they fired. This is great news for India, a team who traditionally have been relying on personalities to carry them home rather than the team.

The Pakistan conundrum

Coming back to the Pakistan story

1. Did they play as frequently as anybody else did?

The answer is yes, they played 22 ODIs. Minnows or no minnows, the ICC or MCC or any other recognized CC still count all these matches played as ODIs.

2. Did they actually play good cricket before?

The statistic says no. They did score some good wins against the Indian's and the Sri Lankan's (here & there) but those wins were just something to add up to their great records against the minnows. Something was definately lacking, Mo Yo, Ge La, Na As, Sa Ah not withstanding.

Intikhab Alam I think could prove to be the missing link the Pakistani team lacked. I am sure Q (and all the bored members) would agree when I say he is more a Javed Miandad type of coach – The hands on variety, but more savvy and noble (a Muhammad Ali as opposed to a street fighter). But he certainly is not the Chandu Borde of Pakistani cricket, before a Kristen is found. I am sure he would certainly change the complexion of Pakistani cricket if the establishment doesn’t change its.

A different tangent again

Do cricketers really bother about their cricketing careers?

That is another post by itself. I think they care a sweet fudge all, what matters for all of them is whether their cash register is ringing or not.

Do you think Mohd. Asif thinks cricket gives him a better kick than the other substances do for him to appeal again??

Do you honestly think Symonds thought of quitting cricket when he came back from fishing?