Don Bradman a better batsman than Sachin Tendulkar, says IIM-C study
In a new study published by the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta (IIM-C) that can compare cricketers’ quality across generations, Sachin Tendulkar came second to Australia’s Don Bradman in all-time greats. Brian Lara, Viv Richards, Ricky Ponting and other greats don’t feature in the top five.
A new research paper published by IIM-C saw the institution coming up with an accurate and practical method to compare star batsmen across generations, which put many arguments to bed. Was Sachin Tendulkar as good as Don Bradman? Are the number of centuries and the batting average the only way to compare batsmen’s performance?
These questions had been in existence for years now but have never been answered accurately so far. However, according to the paper titled ‘Measuring batting consistency and comparing batting greats in Test cricket: Innovative applications of statistical tools’, the Australian legend is rightfully at the top with Sachin Tendulkar coming second followed by England’s Len Hutton and KF
The study analyses a batsman’s performance in terms of five criteria- batting average, consistency or dependability, longevity, quality of runs scored and opposition diversity. Hence, Bradman came out more effective over Tendulkar when it came to the quality of runs scored, while the Mumbaikar excelled
IIM-C’s faculty members Sahadeb Sarkar and Anirban Banerjee spoke to Business Standard to emphasise the study. Sarkar said, “Traditional methods of calculating a player’s batting average require assumptions that may not often be justified. Furthermore, a measure of batting consistency of a player is generally not provided, for example, by ICC or ESPNcricinfo. Our work successfully addresses both of these issues using the Weibull distribution model for a select group of Test batsmen.”
“It provides a reliable estimate of batting consistency which is statistically more rigorous than what is available in the existing literature. Batting average values produced by our statistically more rigorous method are different from those provided by the traditional method,” he added.
The study has claimed Bradman’s average to be 109.42 instead of widely known 99.94. It also stated that Tendulkar is ahead of the likes of Brian Lara, Ricky Ponting, Rahul Dravid and others when it came to facing tough teams. The study gives more importance to the runs scored against teams which had a higher winning percentage.
“We also consider if the runs were scored at home or away, and how well the opposition fared in such situations. This is done through our criterion called ‘index for quality runs scored’. For example, runs scored against an Australian side weigh more than those scored against a Bangladesh or a Zimbabwe team,” said the professor of the operations management group.
Surprisingly, the great Viv Richards stood below average in most categories as the research study revealed that Richards’ batting average compared to other star players became high only against England in both home and away matches, and against New Zealand and India only in home matches.
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