About  

About the Ratings system

Career Ratings

There are loads of Ratings systems on the web, so you might think this is just another one of those crazy fans trying to satisfy himself by rating cricketers.

While I am another one of those crazy fans, the biggest reason I came up with the idea of making a ratings system is because there is no satisfactory system to rate player careers around.

Ratings points have a meaning in the same way that ICC ratings has, but with some differences:

1. 1000+    = Best-ever
2. 800-999 = All-time great
3. 650-799 = Great
4. 550-649 = Very good
5. 400-549 = Good
6. 250-399 = Decent

Current players are highlighted.

The emphasis on the word "career" is because there is a decent system to rate the current form of cricketers -  ICC cricket ratings. This system still has some major flaws but is relatively good compared to other systems.

Individual Performance Ratings

This is my answer to the flaws apparent in the ICC ratings. Although this is not a current-form system, this would provide the solid base for one.

For example, to rate Test batsmen, the ICC ratings takes the runs scored, quality of opposition, level of run-scoring and not outs into account. While this may seem a adequate, some very important factors are ignored. These include point of entry and the match status.

Take for example Brian Lara's 153*. The ICC ratings system would consider it a very good innings since it was against the Australian bowling attack, but the fact that Lara squeaked a 1-wicket win in very unlikely circumstances is ignored. The Individual performance ratings system takes that into account and shows that Lara's innings is actually one of the greatest (if not the greatest) innings of all time.

Click here to browse through all the factors considered in rating Test batting performances.

When ICC took over PwC ratings, Indian captain Sourav Ganguly commented that it was a good ratings system, but also pointed out that some things cannot be rated. He gave Mohammad Kaif's 87* against England in the Natwest Finals in 2002 as an example. Kaif stole an Indian win in very unlikely circumstances. The ICC ratings system would merely consider it a good innings when actually it is worthy of a place in the top 100.

Click here to browse through all the factors considered in rating ODI batting performances.

Similarly, additional factors such as match status are considered to rate bowling performances.

Click here to browse through all the factors considered in rating Test bowling performances.

Click here to browse through all the factors considered in rating ODI bowling performances.

How it all started

I was fascinated by cricket statistics almost since the day I started watching cricket. Eventually, I found out about ratings systems on the web, and was struck with the idea of making my own. So this creation is of around 5 years of hard work and dedication - not to mention ignoring my studies :)

Wisden had done a pretty decent job in rating a player's career before they joined Cricinfo to form Wisden Cricinfo, but there were some surprising anomalies in their ratings too.

For a start, Wally Hammond, who is one of the all-time great batsmen, was rated a lowly 19th in Wisden's ratings when they published it. In the Test bowling ratings, Bill O'Reilly was rated a somewhat high 11th when he did not have the figures to back it up. He was a great bowler, but I felt his Test record alone does not merit his rating above the likes of Curtly Ambrose, Wasim Akram and Fred Trueman.

Wisden's ODI Batting list was reliable but I felt that they did not put enough emphasis on strike rate - one of the most important aspects of One-day cricket. As a whole, that list was also admirable.

In spite of the minor glitches, Wisden's ratings system was very good compared to that others that were in existence, and my ratings system compared favorably with the Wisden system. For example, 8 of the top ten Test bowlers in Wisden was also present in my ratings system at that time.

Making new rating systems has been one of my interests since, and I'm always looking to improve the existing ones. Don't hesitate to send me comments and ideas.

About me

I'm Chula Watugala and an Operations Research and Industrial Engineering major at Cornell University. I'm interested in ratings analysis, web design and forecasting.