Quantifying individual performance in team activity is critical in team selection in international sports. We explore the application of Social Network Analysis (SNA) to rate individuals in an team activity. We choose the game of Cricket as an example. The number runs scored by batsmen and wickets taken by bowlers serves as a natural way of quantifying the performance of a cricketer. Traditionally the batsmen and bowlers are rated on their batting or bowling average respectively. However in a game like cricket it is always important the manner in which one scores the runs or takes a wicket. Scoring runs against a strong bowling line-up or delivering a brilliant performance against a team with strong batting line-up deserves more credit. A player's average is not able to capture this aspect of the game. In this paper we present a refined method to quantify the 'quality' of runs scored by a batsman or wickets taken by a bowler. We apply tools of Social Network Analysis (SNA) to judge a cricketer's performance. We generate directed and weighted network of batsmen-bowlers using the player-vs-player information available for Test cricket and ODI cricket. Additionally we generate network of batsmen and bowlers based on the dismissal record of batsmen in the history of cricket -Test (1877) and ODI (1971. Our results show that SNA approach could provide a refined rating of batsmen and bowlers in history of cricket. Our approach could potentially be applied in domestic cricket to judge a player's performance which in turn pave the way for a balanced team selection for International matches.
The application of the Social Network Analysis (SNA) quantifies the quality of the player-versus-player score REF .
Quantifying individual performance in Cricket $-$ A network analysis of Batsmen and Bowlers
arXiv: Physics and Society
Mathematics Physics