Stats: To see or not to see

Take a leaf out of other sports? Or not?

I have followed the game of baseball for over a decade. Once fascinating thing i have observed in baseball, like in many other American sports, is the obsession with stats. The game is all about numbers. As surprising as it may sound, i have seen it work on so many occasions that it would be foolish to rule out their impact.

Without getting into the intricacies of baseball, i want to dwell on what sort of stats we are talking about.
They could be from team performance related like

• The win-loss record in a particular ground which could indicate how the team performs under certain conditions

Or player performances, like

• The players' performances against specific opponents, which is normally used to target the "star" performers in the opposition line-up

• How a batter has historically performed against right arm pitchers as opposed to left arm pitchers (which could decide on whether he starts or not).

• How a bowler has performed against specific batsmen as well as a comparison of performances against right handers and left handers

Here, cricket has an advantage. In baseball, you cannot tinker with the batting (they call it hitting) line-up. In cricket, you can send any batter at any time. So, if you, for example, find that a batsman has predominantly good numbers against spinners as opposed to the quick bowlers, you can decide to send him in when the spinners are in operation. I agree that over a period of time, the opposition is bound to figure out this strategy and counters it. But the only thing that would increase is the intensity in the game and the excitement level for the fans following the game.

Situation stats like in case a team is chasing a big target, doing a quick stats analysis

• Which team has chased successfully at the ground

• Which team has chased successfully against the same bowling lineup

And trying to figure out what they did right and verify if some of those right things can be replicated.

The point is, its not just about making these stats available to the players but to the audience too which will make it more interesting. However, there is a downside to it. Unfortunately, betting is a reality whose presence in the sport we've all been made painfully aware. I imagine that if television were to show these stats during matches, it will only increase betting and that cannot be good for the game.

End of the day, there is a lot more excitement that can be brought home to your television sets which would make the game watching experience even more interesting. What i have not factored is the possibility of the vast majority of the cricket viewing population not particularly interested in knowing these intricate details which then trumps all the effort put into making this available.