Moderating factors influence the relative age effect in Australian cricket

Abstract

Background The relative age effect is a commonly occurring phenomenon whereby there is a tendency for relatively older players to be over-represented during high level competitions. This effect is often seen to diminish as player’s age, however, there has been far less investigation on other potential moderating factors. Method This study investigated the impact of the relative age effect, and potential moderating factors, within the talent selection process of Australian cricket. Relative age distribution of 2,415 male and female junior and senior state level cricket players, who played in the Junior National Championships or State competition (senior level) between 2011 and 2015, were analysed. Results Players born in the first quartile of the cricket season were significantly over-represented in both male Under-15, Under-17, Under-19 and female Under-15 and Under-18 levels. However, there was no significant difference at the senior state level for either male or female cricketers. Further investigation of the relative age effect in the junior talent pathway revealed that male all-rounders, batters and pace bowlers, and female all-rounders and batters, born in first quartile were over-represented. Right-handed batters and bowlers were also influenced by the relative age effect at all Junior National levels, while left-handed batters and bowlers were only influenced at the Under-15 and Under-17 levels. These results highlight the impact relative age has on junior cricket talent pathways, including sex, age, handedness and primary skills. Only state level, and left-handedness at the Under-19 level, were unaffected by relative age. Discussion The findings of this study highlight the influence of relative age effects for both male and female junior cricket players. Interestingly, there may be an advantage to being left-handed that is more prevalent at the older (male Under-19; female Under-18) age levels.

Performance Advantages of Left-Handed Cricket Batting Talent

“…Second, cricketers in this study were categorized based on whether they competed in a younger age or older age national competition, which relies on chronological age cutoffs. Previous research has highlighted that selection in these competitions can heavily bias the sample population toward relative older players (Connor et al, 2019). Finally, the nature of this study does not allow for the analysis of explanatory factors of various batting stances.…”

“…While there is evidence that left-handedness—and perhaps a “reversed stance”—may be advantageous at the elite level of competition ( Mann et al, 2016 ), much less is known about the age, gender, or performance level at which these advantages might emerge, particularly as other talent selection bias has been previously highlighted in cricket ( Connor et al, 2019 ). If the negative frequency-dependent hypothesis were apparent, then it might be reasonable to expect the advantage of the left-handed cricket batters to increase over time due to a progressive accrual of experience competing against right vs. left-handed opponents.…”

Handedness and Relative Age in International Elite Interactive Individual Sports Revisited

“…There is compelling evidence that the RAE phenomenon as such reduces from junior to senior level, for example, likely due to the reduction in birth-month-related relative age differences with increasing age (Cobley et al, 2009 ). Investigating RAE in male- and female-talented Australian cricketers, Connor et al ( 2019 ) suggested that birth distribution was skewed toward quartile 1 in both left- and right-handed batters and bowlers at the younger age groups (e.g., under 15, under 17), but no longer in left- and occasionally in right-handed players at older age groups (i.e., under 19 and state level). Consequently, provided that the RAE phenomenon is more pronounced and that left-handedness is also relevant to performance at the junior level, the hypothesized effect of athletes' handedness in conjunction with birth month might show through more clearly in that particular age group.…”

“…In view of the performance benefits ascribed to lefthandedness in interactive sports, it has been suggested that left-handedness may be associated with reduced likelihood of suffering from selection inequalities like RAE (Wattie et al, 2015). Evidence in at least partial support of this notion can primarily be inferred from data on interactive team sports like handball (Schorer et al, 2009), cricket (Connor et al, 2019), baseball (Zhang et al, 2018, and water polo (Barrenetxea-Garcia et al, 2019). Birth distribution was found to be heavily skewed toward quartile 1 (January-March) in right-but not left-handed backcourt players from the German first handball league for the seasons 2004/2008(Schorer et al, 2009.…”

The Highs and the Lows—Exploring the Nature of Optimally Impactful Development Experiences on the Talent Pathway

“…Collins et al, 2016a) as they inevitably will. This is especially important as there is a significant body of robust evidence to show that those performers who have early advantages fall away in increasing numbers the higher up the pathway they go (McCarthy, Collins & Court, 2016;Connor, Renshaw & Doma, 2019).…”