ROUNDUP RANT: Averages shouldn't average out the greats
A new and personal way to read averages, cricket’s product problem, & Mooney saves AUS’ blushes.
Good morning!
Don Bradman has broken how we think about cricketers’ careers. What makes his average record unique is that it goes back to the pre-World War II era. In no other sport does a player from a century ago stand apart in a definitively important statistic.
Pele’s greatness was questioned by Maradona’s arrival, and both were made human by Ronaldo and Messi. Schumacher’s run of five F1 titles looks positively quaint compared to Hamilton’s and Verstappen’s records. Federer & Nadal made us forget the greats of the past, and somehow Djokovic might actually be better.
It’s a fundamental truth of the modern world. As science gets better, as sports get richer, records get broken. Maybe some obscure, multi-filtered claim will stay intact (“Who scored the most runs under drizzle after 7 PM at Headingley? The answer will shock you!”), but records across major statistics usually reveal nuances in determining the greatest of all time. Only cricket relies on a singular statistic to determine greatness.
Which all means that in cricket, we are not looking for a new way to evaluate the players’ legacies. Bradman’s average is the gold standard, and everyone points to that number as the singular cricket metric to live by. But, it also means we’re left in a world where future generations are going to definitively believe Virat Kohli (46.85) is not fit to tie Sunil Gavaskar’s shoelaces (51.12).
Which brings us to a great story I missed earlier this week; The Rank Turner’s Tarun goes through his handwritten, personal match records going back decades to re-imagine how we can think about Indian batters from different eras.
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The Aussie rope-a-dope is alive and well
🏏 Match Updates: Mooney saves AUS’ blushes, SA-W’s LSA problem, & Root on The Ashes.
Women’s World Cup:
AUS beat PAK by 107 runs.
👉 Madushka Balasuriya on Beth Mooney curbing her instincts to save AUS.
👉 Vishal Dikshit on SA’s potential problem against left-arm spin.
👉 Vinayakk Mohanarangan on Sree Charani inspiring others in Vizag.
👉 Katya Witney on the “equality” of an all-female umpire panel.AFG v BAN:
AFG beat BAN by 5 wicketsThe Cricket Roundup:
👉 Vithushan Ehantharajah with Joe Root on his last stab at Ashes glory.
👉 Anish Pathiyil with Sabaorish Ravichandran, the Chennaite leading Japan.
👉 Rishikeshwaran CA on Abhishek Sharma versus spin.
👉 Ben Bloom on the unexpected delight of cricket in Corfu.
Averages shouldn’t average out the greats
📚 Must Read Essays: A new way to read averages, cricket’s product problem, & the forgotten 75-76 WI tour of AUS.
“An Average Story”
✍️ Tarun traces the changes in Indian Test batting history using his decades old personal handwritten records, recreating the metric of averages along the way.“Cricket’s Core Design Flaw is Alienating Fans”
✍️ Edward Fitzgibbon identifies cricket’s problem of fluctuating between a product and platform, and not knowing how to sell either one well. It’s a good piece if you want to understand the high-level issues in our sport.“A young Viv, a feast, a six into the sea”
✍️ Peter Hanlon talks to Clive Lloyd to remember the forgotten West Indies tour of Australia in 1975-76.
🗞️ Quick News: WPL Mega Auction dates, Vengsarkar’s statue, & BCB election pushback.
The WPL Mega Auction will occur at the end of November.
The County Championship will give up on its Kookaburra experiment.
Dilip Vengsarkar will get a statue at Wankhede.
The Irish tour of Sri Lanka is postponed, a second tour cancellation in 2025.
Dhaka Cricket Clubs have called the BCB elections “illegal” & want a boycott.
What does it take to win it all?
📺 A/V: WC winners on winning WCs, the grade cricket triple centurion, & WI and PAK’s race to the bottom.
“How to Win a Cricket World Cup”
📽️ Stuart Broad & Jos Buttler host Ebony Rainford-Brent to discuss what it takes to win a World Cup for England. [YouTube]“Record Breaking Runs”
📽️ Michael Clarke talks to Harjas Singh, the Aussie grade cricketer who wrote himself into the record books this week with a triple century. [YouTube]“West Indies’ Decline & The Parallels With Pakistan Cricket”
📽️ Saj Sadiq catches up with veteran journalist Fazeer Mohammad to discuss Pakistan and West Indies’ race to the bottom. [YouTube]
That’s it for today!
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