Manpreet Sidhu, who is working as a Professional Coach & Performance and Strategy Analyst Coach for various ICC Approved T20 Leagues along with the national cricket team of Canada, told our correspondent during an interview that in today's era, deploying data analytics is a must for any team to optimise performance of the criclet players .
“For me T20 format of cricket is probably the most significant development of the game in the current era.
Manpreet shared his international experience of working as a Team Performance & Strategy Analyst Coach in premier leagues Like LPL (Lanka Premier League), AbuDhabi T10, BPL (Bangladesh Premier League), Global GT20 (Canada Premier League) and working with an International Cricket Team of CANADA. He said that player analysis and data analytics have a lot of impact during any tournament, so that we know the strength of the team of the opponents, their weakness, how they can think during a pressure match and based on this we make our strategy for the next game with all the our players and coaching staff.
Manpreet says, data analytics is increasingly being used by many international and franchise teams to take data driven decision. It helps in assessing individual player performance, opponents' strengths & weakness which, is a fundamental task for team management.
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Cricket is the second most popular sport after soccer in terms of viewership. However, players' assessment and many operational decisions in cricket are primarily based on experts' subjective judgments using aggregate performance statistics. This approach is not only highly inefficient but may result in a biased decision.
He says," I have witnessed the rage of the cricket season, the battle between the teams, the fight for the trophy. Fans sitting glued to television screens every evening sporting the team jerseys. Everybody loves going back in time, assessing how teams and players have performed."
"For me, data that is related to a single batsman, including the number of balls faced, the number of runs scored, the strike rate, the number of fours and sixes, the strike rate against a particular bowler, the runs scored against a particular bowler. Simialrly, for a bowler, the data include the number of overs bowled, number of wickets that the bowler has taken, number of runs given, bowling average, and so on. Apart from this, there is also statistical data that will highlight the way the ball was swung during the initial stages of the game, the way each player responds to the delivery, also that will based on recent match performances."
Collectively, all of this data have the potential to create vast opportunities to analyze and make meaningful insights which in turn will help the team captains to make the right decision both on and off the field. It empowers teams with the ability to make accurate decisions about a game that is known to be unpredictable.
Manpreet has also worked for various cricket association teams and has been a part of several cricket camps at the National Cricket Academy (NCA). He also is the founder of Ekkas Cricketing Excellence, a personal coach organization that helps many cricketers to develop their Skills.
