Contributions of wicketkeepers have increased over the years
Using the 5 scoring techniques for wicket keeper contributions, it was possible to churn out data for different decades. Players that kept wicket for 5 years till 2000 and 3 years after 2000, were included in the 1990 decade. The groupings are presented below in the following ugly colors.
| Name | Country | Career |
| Evans, T G | England | 1946-1959 |
| Waite, J H B | South Africa | 1951-1965 |
| Parks, J M | England | 1954-1968 |
| Murray, D L | West Indies | 1963-1980 |
| Knott, A P E | England | 1967-1981 |
| Wasim Bari | Pakistan | 1967-1984 |
| Marsh, R W | Australia | 1970-1984 |
| Taylor, R W | England | 1971-1984 |
| Kirmani, S M H | India | 1976-1986 |
| Smith, I D S | New Zealand | 1980-1992 |
| Dujon, P J L | West Indies | 1981-1991 |
| Salim Yousuf | Pakistan | 1982-1990 |
| More, K S | India | 1986-1993 |
| Russell, R C | England | 1988-1998 |
| Healy, I A | Australia | 1988-1999 |
| Parore, A C | New Zealand | 1990-2002 |
| Stewart, A J | England | 1990-2003 |
| Moin Khan* | Pakistan | 1990-2004 |
| Richardson, D J | South Africa | 1992-1998 |
| Flower, A | Zimbabwe | 1992-2002 |
| Rashid Latif | Pakistan | 1992-2003 |
| Kaluwitharana, R S | Sri Lanka | 1992-2004 |
| Mongia, N R | India | 1994-2001 |
| Boucher, M V* | South Africa | 1997-Present |
| Jacobs, R D | West Indies | 1998-2004 |
| Gilchrist, A C* | Australia | 1999-Present |
| Sangakkara, K C* | Sri Lanka | 2000-Present |
| Kamran Akmal* | Pakistan | 2002-Present |
| Jones, G O * | England | 2004-Present |
The groupings are certainly not meant to be precise, so don't hate on me, but the results below do give us a clear indication of where cricket is headed.
The chart above indicated the trend using the 5 scoring techniques. D and E were calculated using 2 different constants, so when normalized, are exactly the same. I didn't have too much data before 1970, but I have included the few players from that era for which I did have some. The average on the chart is the average of the 5 scoring techniques (weighted a bit more towards D and E unfortunately).
The conclusion is that the days of the specialist keeper are numbered. A keeper is now as much a batsmen as he is a keeper. More importantly I feel that a player like Adam Gilchrist, who people think is a once-in-a-lifetime cricketer, is just the first great wicket-keeper batsmen in this trend. Dhoni, Sangakarra, McCullum and even Akmal to an extent may eventually surpass Gilchrist's statistics.
6 comments:
i would pass a snide comment like "you're damn khwaar for doing this" but then i remember that many times i too have wanted to do some statistical study or the other (s rajesh, my hero) but havent been able to do because of a lack of time so i'll just say well done. though im not sure how useful this study is in the sense that we already knew based on anecdotal evidence that keepers are as much batsmen today as keepers. i dont think this is because today's keepers are more talented per se, but that from a young age they're taught that batting is as important as keeping and thus you have to keep working on it as opposed to yesteryear where im guessing young keepers were told to just keep and bat in the last 20 minutes of net practice or whatever.
one thing i'll disagree with is your assertion that gilchrist's records will be surpassed. i think thats jumping the gun a little. while it may be true to say that the average batting average of keepers is probably going to continue to rise, you have to realize how much of an outlier gilchrist really is. for most of his career the man average more than 50 at a strike rate of more than 80. those are RIDICULOUS numbers and no keeper (certainly none of the present lot, save for sangakarra whos a batsman who can keep rather than the other way round) can hope to match. dhoni et all might end up with averages of 35, maybe even 40 if they really work on their batting, but 50? come on man. the only reason he didnt play as a "true" all rounder (i.e. batting at 6 or higher) was that waugh/ponting never felt the need to play more than 4 bowlers what with having mcgrath and warne in the team and all. the point is that gilchrist EASILY walks into the all-time WORLD XI (not Australia XI, world XI) because of his batting. his keeping, save for a series here or there (which every keeper has) has always been tidy and efficient, which is all you can ask for.
Thanks for the comments!
hah - yes I am bloody khwar - I wanted to basically figure out if Akmal was sucking or not. And all these things are side studies.
and heh! thanks for saying it anyway! I obviously have way too much time. Chalta hai.
Right - It's obvious that batting is the measuring stick by which to judge keepers by, but I wanted to prove it. Sometimes even the easiest things need to be proven, in order to present future results. I'm sure you agree.
The reason I said the Gilchrist's contributions wil be surpassed is because I will be presenting data in which in certain years, some keepers actually did better than him according to the scoring system I made up.
In fact, in 1 year, Akmal was the best keeper beating Gilchrist by a whisker...
Secondly according to my contribution ranking system, Gilchrist comes first most of the time, but not always! So that's why I believe he may not be such an outlier as we all believe him to be.
You're right though in the sense that he is an all-time great player and all that and is remarkably consistent. (I will actually be presenting data on 'consistency' too)
But records are meant to be broken, and from the fudging around with all this data, I am pretty convinced that Gilchrist's heroics can, in fact, be surpassed.
well, i guess we'll have to agree to disagree on gilchrist. i am firmly of the opinion that we are unlikely to ever see someone like him again (can't say never, but i can say very very unlikely)...he's statistically the equivalent of bradman in my opinion. and furthermore, with him, its not just about statistics, it's also the effect on the opposition he has/had. you can almost hear the groans from captains/bowlers when australia's fifth wicket falls/fell because of the sheer intimdatory aspect of his play. i mentioned his strike rate alongside his average for a reason - he can change, and has changed, games in a session. regularly, consistenly, year after year, different oppositions, different grounds, different conditions.
as for your study in general, if as you say that it's designed to see if akmal's sucking or not, then i'm afraid because of the methodological issues you highlighted, it's doomed from the start. akmal sucking has everything to do with his dropped catches and missed stumpings, not his batting or number of dismissals effected. but since you cant measure over a period of time how many catches he's dropped/stumpings he's missed, then i'm not sure how useful the study is. but hey, its stopped from me doing research on MERCOSUR and argentina-brazil relations, so at least in that respect, its served a useful purpose.
Ahsan, thanks again for the comment
Nah - I don't totally disagree with you. I just have to argue with you for the sake of argument, since its more fun that way. But lets wait till I put up some posts and see what happens when I rank everyone. I haven't reached concrete conclusions as of yet, but initially the results do seem to show that Gilchrists contributions are comparable to others. I don't want to put everything up all of a sudden. Firstly, because I haven't completed it, and secondly, that'll be kinda boring. Though not much is happening these days.
You're right on the second point too. Though, in defense of this study, it only started out by asking if Akmal is sucking these days. (Hopefully I'll be able to gauge he is sucking from his dismissals (i.e. contribution).) Unlikely, though, since I only have certain databases at my disposal. If I had ball by ball data, naturally, I would be a happier man. But regardless of that, I still have some interesting trends and I can rank contributions.
S. Rajesh is awesome, and he has this info at his disposal and he did a study 2 years ago using ball by ball data. That was some accurate shit. I emailed him asking for the link, or maybe access, but obviously, I am nobody.
In any case, It'll be interesting to see where Akmal stands amongst his peers in terms of contributions. Plus I found some other interesting trends. I spent way to long on this excel file, and I am bloody well going to publish everything!
I have been using the word contributions and ranking via contributions specifically for this reason that you cite. I dont have dropped catches etc, so I can't rank these guys in terms of quality.
What I was hoping for was a drop in the dismissals rate, which could point towards a reduction in quality. But in fact, there is no drop in his dismissals, mainly coz we have this new trend of line and length type bowlers instead of wicket to wicket. (Gul/Asif vs Akhtar). So Akmal is still going to get his catches.
Yeah. I dont know man. MERCOSUR sounds hot. What the hell is it?
the common market in south america. mercosur is the acronym in spanish, mercosul in portuguese.
Good job with the research Omar, very interesting stats, look forward to reading the rest...may god find me a cure to my-pre-world-cup-induced-boredom too.
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