Equitable Distribution of Resources

Contributed by Subash Jayaraman

New South Wales have a very good batting line up on paper, and it looks like that's reflected in their performances on the field. But the sheet of ice they are skidding on is thinner than it looks.

Out of 100% of their batting resources, Phil Hughes alone contributes 25%. The next highest contribution is 17% from David Warner. Most of the other frontline batsmen contribute under 10%, which suggests that a disproportionate part of New South Wales' batting strength is concentrated on just 2 to 3 players.

These are based on stats collected from before the CLT20 began, so neither is it a coincidence nor is it a surprise that NSW have done well in all three of their matches and Phil Hughes is the top run scorer of the tournament.

Studying how much each player contributes to his or her team's batting resources is an interesting way to see how well balanced the teams are. The percentage that each individual contributes to the team's resources overall can be calculated by determining each individual player's batting average and strike rate as a factor of the team's overall batting average and average strike rate, with provisions made for factoring top order batsmen and tail-ender contributions separately.

Andrew Symonds may be making major dents in his team's alcohol resources but he adds tremendous weight to their cricketing strength. He is the most valuable of all players who are playing/who have played in the tournament, making up a whopping 25% of Deccan's batting resources. Which explains their early exit, running parallel to Symonds' twin failures.

Given that a typical T20 team consists of 6 to 7 regular batsmen (including batting all-rounders), the perfect balance can be said to occur when each batsman contributes between 10 to 15%, with the remaining coming from the tail. This suggests that everyone makes equal contributions, and you have to get rid of 7 batsmen to get through 70-80% of the team's strength.

In that sense, Trinidad and Tobago have the best balance of the lot, wth 7 players falling in the 11 to 18% belt. No wonder they have gone on to win against NSW despite losing early wickets, while Deccan lost against T&T from being in a more comfortable position at around the same point in the match. Popular perception suggests that Cape Cobras are a one-man unit revolving around Duminy but that may not be true. They have six batsmen contributing over 11%. One man may be single handedly taking them through everytime but it is a different man everytime...

Of course, balance is just one aspect of a team, a good parameter to measure a team but not the only one. The English ODI team is perhaps the most balanced one with everyone sharing the responsibility to flop equally between them!

At any rate, it is amusing how being complete 'socialists' by nature may actually help a team win the gawdy exhibition of capitalism that is the Champions League T20.

(Click here to know more about Jatin, and here to know more about Sreeram)

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Equitable Distribution of Resources

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