In this episode of the 81allout podcast, we dive headfirst into the banal talking points that dominate our sports related conversations, how they propagate, and the deleterious impact these narratives can have on the popular discourse.
We also discuss the need for data transparency and how to use the data into defensible, digestible narratives that truly inform avid viewers of the sport. Is this a niche or a basic need? Would love to hear what our listeners think!
Participants:
Karthik Krishnaswamy (@the_kk)
Kartikeya Date (@cricketingview)
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Related pieces:
Should you teach your kids to bat like Steve Smith – Hussain and Sangakkara discuss on Sky Sports
Pujara swears by his survival guide – by Karthik Krishnaswamy
Shiv on the shore – by Rahul Bhattacharya
Chanderpaul tribute – by Christian Ryan
Why there is no such thing as a finisher in ODI cricket – by Kartikeya Date
The mother of all myths – Tom Eaton on South Africa’s choking narrative
The vivid imagination of Viv Richards – by Christian Ryan
Agree with KD about the blank narrative. There’s a noticeable lack of depth and nuance in cricket “analysis”. Innovations in graphics/stats are driven mostly by broadcasters at their fancy. Programmes like Masterclass are very rare.
Following on, interesting comparison with academic work. There is no central corpus of work that consolidates cricketing knowledge under a methodical approach. The works of someone like Ananth Narayanan or KD need to be collated into a body of work that progressively proves and discusses actual facts about cricket through nuanced analysis, numbers and debate, much like peer-review, as KD said. This needs to be added to “known knowledge”, much like an academic field, and it needs to be built upon. Cricket is complex enough to merit at least a semi-scientific approach.
Cricket discourse is full of abstract BS. It’s actually bullshit. It’s cliches, misconceptions, buzzwords and trivia posing as “stats”. This is furthered by hapless ex-players and myopic mediapersons who write whatever flowery fluff comes to their mind.
Cricket data is like pre-’90s Indian economy. The few entities that gather real stats want to be protected against revealing the data to the open market. CricViz, for instance, has monetised it globally, and they don’t want their monopoly to be broken, at least currently.
Also, as you guys said, as the ICC are a bunch of aimless incoherent idiots, it falls to broadcasters and media to construct new stats and methods, which has no central controlling power. If some broadcaster decides to show a graphic as simple as 5 wicket hauls per innings, it is completely on their whims and fancies.
At least now we have resources like Cricsheet that provide BBB data openly.
Still a long way to go.
Thanks for your comment, Himanish. All valid points in here. I also think every major media organization needs to start training their cricket writers on mathematical literacy and how to present a story better. Unless there is an organization-wide backing, individual writers will not see any reason to stray out of their comfort zones. – Sidvee