Small Steps

Posted: 26th of August, 2009

This site contains the initial data files I generated for a number of international matches in 2009. They’re accurate, but not in a format I’m completely happy with. Rather than wait until I work out the right format I’m just throwing them out there and will change them as required.

Three things inspired me to do my initial work on generating data files for cricket matches; the first was the book Moneyball by Michael Lewis regarding the efforts of the baseball team the Oakland Athletics to use statistical analysis to build the roster; the second was a post on Pappus plane briefly mentioning a database of cricket data; the third, my discovery of the inspiring work of Aneesh at Against The Spin in providing data for numerous T20 matches.

After a brief discussion with Aneesh, I decided to put some work into trying to expand on his work. Rather than going into mind-numbing detail regarding the process I’ll simply say that I succeeded in adding further details of each wicket, such as who was out, how, and who was involved, better player names, and, non-striker information. These additions are merely the first small steps towards the level of data I would like to see available to statisticians. My thoughts on where this may go will come at a later date.