{"id":714,"date":"2020-08-10T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-08-10T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/reports\/how-the-ecb-is-embracing-the-use-of-analytics-in-cricket\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T05:12:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T05:12:14","slug":"how-the-ecb-is-embracing-the-use-of-analytics-in-cricket","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/how-the-ecb-is-embracing-the-use-of-analytics-in-cricket\/","title":{"rendered":"How the ECB is Embracing the Use of Analytics in Cricket"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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\n Aug 10, 2020 <\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>Articles<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t

How the ECB is Embracing the Use of Analytics in Cricket<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n \n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Category<\/div>\n Data & Innovation<\/a> <\/div>\n
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Giles Lindsay explains how the analyst must tell stories that appeal to the player, coach or selector\u2019s intuition.<\/p>\n \n \n \n

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\u201cCricket has long been\u00a0au\u00a0fait with statistics it\u2019s a data rich sport,\u201d says Giles Lindsay, the National Lead for Performance Analysis at the England & Wales Cricket Board [ECB].\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n
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By John Portch<\/h6>\n

That said, it is perhaps only in recent years that the sport has fully recognised the value in analysis beyond the \u2018traditional\u2019 and England began to reap the rewards, initially rising to number one in the World Test Rankings, and, more recently, winning the Cricket World Cup in 2019.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn other sports,\u201d he tells the Leaders <\/span>Performance Institute, \u201cthe score line and traditional data do not necessarily tell you the story of a match, but in cricket this data can help you understand the story of how the game unfolded.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAnd for a long time, there was little in the way of innovation around this understanding of cricket and how it was looked at. Cricket people have grown up with this view of the\u00a0game\u00a0but I think now we are able to offer much better explanations and performance metrics to help with decision making in areas such as talent identification, strategy and tactics.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been on a journey.\u00a0<\/span>Moneyball<\/span><\/i>\u00a0demonstrated to the world of elite sport the value of data and the ECB were quick to embrace this by appointing Nathan Leamon as England analyst in 2009.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

More than a decade after Leamon first walked through Grace Gates at Lord\u2019s Cricket Ground, the ECB\u2019s commitment to analytics has consolidated and expanded under Lindsay, who arrived from Leeds Rugby to take up the role of National Lead for Performance Analysis in 2013 with a remit that covers England\u2019s senior and pathway age-group teams. \u201cWe currently have six full-time analysts and an intern programme,\u201d he says.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAlongside that, we have the support of 18 dedicated county analysis departments who provide the analytical services to their clubs. We also have a growing number of external providers who supply us with data and video.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

How is all this data used? \u201cTo influence decision-making and ultimately\u00a0<\/span>deliver\u00a0<\/span>better outcomes on and off the field,\u201d Lindsay explains. \u201cTo do this, we need to be telling the story in a way that is understandable to the decision-maker.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou get an initial wave of enthusiasm,\u201d Leamon told the\u00a0<\/span>Daily Telegraph<\/span><\/i>\u00a0in 2018. \u201cYou know, someone reads Moneyball, and then tries to do something similar.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

During the next phase, according to Leamon, data is \u201ca little bit oversold and people make mistakes with it,\u201d which can lead to \u201ca reactionary pushback from more traditional viewpoints\u201d. He feared at one stage that the ECB could lose its competitive advantage in analytics.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As Leamon observed of this late phase: \u201cThe tide comes in, and everyone realises that if you use data and use it well, and you choose when and where you use it, then you can add significant value.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Storytelling<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the goals for Lindsay and his department is to find resonant metrics and insights that make a difference to decision making \u2013 bypassing any residual scepticism of a player, coach or selector.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFor example,\u201d he continues, \u201cwe take in all the match data from every game around the world and we break that down and store it individually ball by ball and can do some relatively complex analysis and modelling on that. Initially we had 3.18 million balls of data from cricket across the globe \u2013 it\u2019s probably\u00a0double\u00a0that now due to the scope and range of data we can collect. From there, we\u2019ve developed metrics, which we think are helpful though part of the skill is making them meaningful to coaches or the selection panel, so they intuitively get them, they understand the concepts. If they\u2019re presented with a number that they don\u2019t intuitively recognise in a \u2018real life\u2019 context it can sometimes lead to indifference.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Lindsay coaches his team to \u201cbe the storyteller and try to get the coaches, selector or player to understand it on their terms so they can associate with it.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

To reach that point, an analyst must work to develop rapport with all those key stakeholders. \u201c<\/span>An analyst is not going to have a long shelf life if they go and try to tell everyone what they think they know straight away without listening to what their subject wants to know<\/span>,\u201d says Lindsay.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He then summons the memory of a previous Leaders Sport Performance Summit. \u201cThe great line I heard at Leaders was that listening to people\u00a0<\/span>before<\/span><\/i>\u00a0you try to change the way they think goes a long way. What I\u2019ve tried to do in both cricket and rugby is encourage my staff to build a relationship with the coach; what they want to know about the game and what their questions are before you try and give them an answer.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Lindsay\u2019s player-facing staff are also fluent in cricket and able to hold cricket conversations with coaches and players. \u201cWe use cricket language and cricket terminology and one of the things that we consciously do, having lots of data available to us, is try and break that down into easily assimilated ways for players and coaches to understand it. Instead of a percentage or a graph or probability, it will be a suggestion or a sentence or a video; or the kind of things that people talk about in meetings rooms or changing rooms rather than an Excel spreadsheet or a PowerPoint.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe try to feed it into cricket terminology and, when we do use new terms, it\u2019s with the explanation behind it that they can latch onto rather than a magical phrase plucked out of nowhere.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe try to see things from their perspective. It could be the simplest thing they want to know; if you can give them the simplest thing then they\u2019re going to come back and ask for the next simplest thing and then you build it from there. Bombarding anyone, continually, with challenging concepts to prove you are the smartest in the room isn\u2019t always the most conducive for relationship building! If you try to bombard them with something that is way beyond where their headspace is at the\u00a0time\u00a0then I don\u2019t think it\u2019s going to build a relationship in the long-term.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are different, sports are different, it\u2019s a human game, which is why we love it because it\u2019s unpredictable. You get some people who are just not interested and there are other people who have a huge thirst for it and don\u2019t necessarily know exactly what it is they want.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe try to take an individual approach and we have that opportunity because we\u2019re embedded in the team and we work closely with coaches and decision-makers; we get to know them and know what works for them.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think one service we\u2019ve sought to provide as analysts is also to empower the decision-maker to be self-sufficient.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The ECB \u2018data lake\u2019<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The next step on the path to self-sufficiency is decision-makers engaging with the ECB\u2019s bespoke developed app to inform tactics, strategy and scouting of opponents and grounds. As Lindsay explains: \u201cThis app that allows the data to flow live to the decision-makers and they can form their own questions in a manner conducive to them; we did some work on creating a user experience that enabled them to consume, digest and manipulate the data in a manner with which they were comfortable.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He adds: \u201cIt means that our time is freed up to answer more detailed, in-depth questions perhaps beyond the time and resource of the decision-makers. It allows them to answer the semi-simple queries themselves and it\u2019s all up to date. It\u2019s gone from being an A3 print-out to a live app. We\u2019ve been able to incorporate the different data streams that we couldn\u2019t previously by being limited to paper. We have video, performance data, scouting information, subjective human reports, strength & conditioning data.\u201d Coaches and captains might see a dossier that includes video footage and statistical breakdowns, while the players\u2019 feed will largely comprise of video footage.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEverything is in one place and it allows the decision-maker to be self-serving. It works for them, saves us time, and it saves them time.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Lindsay says that baseball is probably the closest sport to cricket in terms of its use of statistics but historically there has been less analytical sophistication in cricket than its near neighbour. For one, there are smaller sample sizes available in cricket compared to, say, the 162 games of a Major League Baseball regular season. Also, there is a greater number of professional clubs across baseball, each with its own analytics department delving into the numbers and greater external resources available in terms of scope of data and technology.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

However, Lindsay and the ECB are regularly engaged with the 18 analysis teams embedded in the clubs across English county cricket. \u201cWe have a joined-up system and any information that\u2019s captured during first-class matches or women\u2019s matches flows into the ECB database. Everything is on the same system.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He refers to it as a \u201cdata lake\u201d, which has proven useful given the varied athlete monitoring technologies used across the globe. \u201cWe\u2019ve tried to make all of our systems device agnostic. We\u00a0are able to\u00a0connect the data where necessary without being restricted to one system or supplier or one specific app.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf we were to change system, it would undergo rigorous testing and needs analysis as to what the benefits are and the performance costs of changing the system, the learning process, the difference in data, the performance difference it will make to us in the longer term. What we\u00a0are able to\u00a0do with the system we have got, our data lake, is we\u2019re able to add or bolt bits on.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTo a large extent, the data that underpins cricket isn\u2019t going to change; maybe the systems that collect it will do. We have that as a strong foundation.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What of the variables in the game itself that make sophisticated analysis so problematic? Soil and climactic conditions, for example, will dictate how a pitch plays in different parts of the globe. A century scored at Lord\u2019s in London is not directly comparable with a century scored at Eden Gardens in Kolkata; and that is without comparing states of play.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In England, where it rains more often, wickets tend to be greener and more compacted, which sees the ball retain its speed. The humid English conditions can also cause the ball to move more in the air; much to the delight of pace bowlers. The moisture in the ground can also preserve a new ball for longer. In the Asian\u00a0Sub Continent, by comparison, pitches are drier and tend to crumble and, because the climate is less humid, the ball moves less in the air and tends to stick on the wicket. The leather of the new ball will also deteriorate quicker, which means a bouncing ball turns more than it might in England. Instead of promoting pace bowling, such conditions encourage spin bowling to a greater extent.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Lindsay and his team know these factors will impact on strategy, team selection, tactics and any number of other variables and it is necessarily reflected in their analyses. \u201cWe use metrics such as weighted averages and player ratings\u201d he explains. \u201cTraditionally, when you look at a batsman\u2019s performance, the higher the average they\u2019re considered to be the better batsman, but it doesn\u2019t take into account the context or the opposition, or a great many other factors, or even simple issues such as how many games it\u2019s over.\u00a0<\/span>W<\/span>e\u2019ve developed some metrics to help flatten the playing field a little bit.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It has proven a hit with the ECB\u2019s decision-makers. \u201cOnce you explain what it\u2019s doing, people want that.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

ECB analysis will continue to play a key and growing role, whether it be in team strategy, talent identification or match analysis, as England look to extend the senior men\u2019s 2019 World Cup success across all formats of the game.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Looking for more performance insight?<\/strong><\/p>\n

This article first appeared in our Performance<\/em> journal, which\u00a0is available for download now and leads with a selection of insights lifted from our At Home With Leaders podcast series, which has featured the likes of England Rugby\u2019s Eddie Jones<\/strong>, the Toronto Blue Jays\u2019 Mark Shapiro<\/strong>, and Chelsea\u2019s Emma Hayes<\/strong> speaking directly from their home offices.<\/p>\n