Quantifying Cricket Fast-Bowling Skill

Abstract

There are several discrepancies in how fast-bowling skill has been assessed and subsequently quantified in the literature to date. This is a problem, because comparisons between studies are often difficult. Therefore, a strong rationale exists for the creation of match-specific standardized fast-bowling assessments that offer greater ecological validity while maintaining acceptable reliability and sensitivity of the skill measures. If prospective research can act on the proposed recommendations from this review, then coaches will be able to make more informed decisions surrounding player selection, talent identification, return to skill following injury, and the efficacy of short- and long-term training interventions for fast bowlers.

Development of a Twenty20 Field-Based Simulation for Cricket Fast Bowlers (FBS-T20)

“…Furthermore, the FBS-T20 did not allocate time for breaks in play because of boundaries or wickets that would lead to increased duration of play. Temperatures and humidity recordings (temperature: 21.3 ± 5.1° C; humidity: 45 ± 17%), remained stable throughout the FBS-T20 and were similar to temperatures reported in a previous pace bowling simulation study (6). These environmental conditions are potentially less harsh than what players would experience during an Australian cricket summer but may be similar to playing conditions in the Northern Hemisphere.…”

“…The authors largely contribute this to differences in the playing level of the players (national vs. local level). National and international level players have been demonstrated to have V̇ o 2 max values ranging between 50.6 and 62.7 ml·kg −1 ·min −1 , which is higher than the estimated V̇ o 2 max from the Yo-Yo IRT1 results of the recreational players from this study (44.9 ± 2.9 ml·kg −1 ·min −1 ) (6,11,20). Given the lower physical fitness of players in this study compared with national players, we can conclude that given the same external workloads, recreational players are most likely to demonstrate higher internal workloads.…”

Age-related changes in the performance of bowlers in Test match cricket

“…Even so, economy rate is not directly substitutable for accuracy, and even if it were, accuracy or skill is hard to quantify in a game where variety in terms of the trajectory and speed at which a ball is bowled can also bring rewards. As a result, testing for a correlation between speed and economy rate at broad scales – or accuracy by some measure 71 – is likely to remain elusive under match conditions.…”

Adopting a Constraints-Led Approach to Enhance Skill Acquisition for Fast Bowlers in Grassroots Cricket

“…The few interventions designed for fast bowlers have also had physiological or kinematic aims like technique modification for back and shoulder injury prevention (Ranson et al, 2009), harness usage for reduced disc degeneration (Wallis et al, 2002), or cooling methods for reducing physiological load (Minett et al, 2012). Interventions relating to the improvement of fast bowling performance from a performance analysis perspective are scant, despite knowing how integral they are to team performance, as they are the enforcers of minimizing opposition runs and maximizing opposition wickets -both of which are important performance measures of bowling performance in cricket (Feros et al, 2018b;Jamil et al, 2021;Mehta et al, 2022). The accuracy of bowling, therefore, is critical to team success, and inaccurate bowling not only works to the batter's advantage in general but also carries penalties in limited-overs cricket formats, such as one extra run for the batting team and an extra ball for wide balls and no-balls (when the bowler oversteps the bowling crease or bowls an above waist high full toss).…”